IRON  ORES 


McGraw-Hill  BookGompany 


Electrical  World         The  Engineering  and  Mining  Journal 
Engineering  Record  Engineering  News 

Railway  Age  Gazette  American  Machinist 

Signal  ElnginGor  American  Engineer 

Electric  Railway  Journal  Coal  Age 

Metallurgical  and  Chemical  Engineering  P  o  we r 


IRON   ORES 

THEIREOCCURRENCE,  VALUATION 
AND  CONTROL 


BY 
EDWIN  C.  ECKEL 

M 

A8SOC.  AM.  8OC.  C.  E., 
FELLOW,  GEOL.  SOC.  AMERICA 


FIRST  EDITION 


McGRAW-HILL  BOOK  COMPANY,  INC. 
239  WEST  39TH   STREET,  NEW  YORK 

6  BOUVERIE  STREET,  LONDON,  E.  C. 

1914 


COPYRIGHT,  1914,  BY  THE 
MCGRAW-HILL  BOOK  COMPANY,  INC. 

i^-H 

,     ; 


THE'MAPLE.  PRESS. YORK.  PA 


PREFACE 

The  material  presented  in  this  volume  has  been  worked  over, 
at  intervals,  during  many  years  of  professional  activity;  and  cer- 
tain sections  have,  as  later  noted,  been  published  in  various 
technical  journals  and  in  private  and  official  reports. 

The  volume  as  it  now  stands  represents  an  attempt  to  discuss 
iron  ores  not  merely  in  their  geologic  and  technical  relations,  but 
in  their  more  general  relations  to  industrial  conditions.  The 
field  thus  outlined  is  broad,  and  the  risk  of  failure  is  correspond- 
ingly great.  But  on  the  other  hand  there  have  been  exceptional 
opportunities  for  studying  the  iron-ore  situation  from  several 
widely  different  standpoints,  and  something  more  than  a  purely 
technical  treatment  seemed  to  be  both  justified  and  desirable. 
The  industries  based  upon  iron  ores  are  of  interest,  directly  or 
indirectly,  to  the  entire  business  and  financial  world;  and  have 
also  to  some  degree  become  matters  of  political  concern.  Any 
adequate  discussion  of  the  general  iron-ore  situation  must  there- 
fore take  into  consideration  many  factors  not  commonly  regarded 
by  the  geologist  or  the  engineer,  and  too  often  passed  by  as  not 
susceptible  of  exact  definition  or  scientific  treatment.  It  is 
hoped  that  this  volume  will  prove  to  be,  if  not  conclusive,  at 
least  suggestive  in  these  regards. 

Beginning  with  some  consideration  of  the  natural  abundance 
and  wide  distribution  of  iron,  the  manner  in  which  this  dissemi- 
nated iron  is  concentrated  into  workable  ore  deposits  is  discussed 
in  considerable  detail.  It  may  be  noted,  in  this  connection,  that 
the  sedimentary  ores  are  given  space  more  nearly  commensurate 
with  their  overwhelming  importance  than  has  been  common 
practice. 


293196 


vi  PREFACE 

The  second  section  of  the  volume  is  devoted  to  discussion  of  the 
various  factors  affecting  the  value  of  iron  ores  and  the  valuation 
of  ore  deposits.  An  introductory  chapter  summarizes  the  basal 
factors  concerned  in  these  matters.  This  is  followed  by  a  discus- 
sion of  prospecting  or  exploratory  work,  in  which  for  the  first  time 
an  attempt  is  made  to  indicate  the  manner  in  which  theories 
of  origin  actually  bear  upon  the  examination  of  ore  deposits. 
Following  this  are  chapters  on  mining  costs,  concentrating  possi- 
bilities, and  furnace  and  mill  requirements,  so  far  as  any  of  these 
matters  bear  upon  the  subject  of  ore  valuation.  Later  chapters 
of  this  section  treat  of  prices,  markets  and  other  financial  aspects 
of  the  problem. 

Descriptions  of  the  more  important  ore  deposits  of  the  world  are 
contained  in  the  third  part  of  the  book.  In  preparing  these 
descriptions,  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  consider  the  deposits 
in  the  light  of  their  present  and  possible  industrial  importance. 
Deposits  of  local  importance  and  those  which  are  of  interest 
solely  as  geologic  occurrences  are  not  described,  and  individual 
mines  and  ore  properties  are  not  noted  except  as  illustrating 
general  types.  The  attempt  has  been  to  give,  with  regard  to 
each  important  ore  field,  sufficient  data  concerning  its  location, 
type,  ore  grade,  shipments  and  reserves  to  justify  conclusions 
expressed  by  the  writer,  or  to  enable  the  reader  to  form  his  own 
conclusions,  as  to  the  present  and  possible  future  importance  of 
that  field.  In  most  cases  very  full  reference  lists  are  included,  so 
that  further  details  can  be  looked  up  as  desired. 

The  final  section  of  the  volume  deals  with  certain  questions 
of  very  general  interest  and  great  importance.  Estimates  are 
given  covering  the  known  iron-ore  reserves  of  the  world,  and  the 
bearing  of  these  estimates  upon  the  probable  future  development 
of  the  iron  industry  is  discussed  in  some  detail.  Particular 
attention  is  paid  to  conditions  affecting  the  American  iron  indus- 
try, regarding  its  own  internal  development,  its  relations  to  foreign 
competition,  and  its  relation  to  the  State.  It  is  probable  that 


PREFACE  vii 

public  interest  in  the  last  point  mentioned  will  continue  until 
laws  are  brought  into  harmony  with  industrial  conditions. 

In  preparing  this  book,  data  have  been  drawn  from  a  large 
number  of  published  and  unpublished  sources,  covering  both  the 
work  of  others  and  my  own.  In  addition  to  the  specific  credits 
given  in  the  text,  my  acknowledgments  are  due  to  the  editors  of 
various  journals,  for  permission  to  re-publish  Certain  sections 
which  I  originally  published  in  their  columns.  The  Engineering 
Magazine,  Iron  Trade  Review,  Iron  Age,  Engineering  and  Mining 
Journal  and  The  Annalist  are  my  principal  creditors  in  this 
regard. 

E.  C.  E. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
June  18,  1914 


CONTENTS 
INTRODUCTORY 

CHAPTER  I.  THE  INDUSTRIAL  STATUS  OF  IRON: 

Relative  tonnage  importance 2 

Relative  total  values 2 

The  metals  compared,  1901-1910 4 

Summary  of  tonnage  and  value  comparisons 5 

Relative  natural  scarcity  of  the  metals 6 

The  American  situation      7 

Summary 8 

PART  I.  THE  ORIGIN  OF  IRON-ORE  DEPOSITS 

CHAPTER  II.  THE  GEOLOGIC  AND  CHEMICAL  RELATIONS  OF  IRON: 

Natural  abundance  of  iron 9 

Iron  ores  and  ore  deposits      10 

The  growth  of  the  earth 11 

Relative  age  of  rocks 12 

Geologic  chronology 13 

Igneous  rocks  and  iron 14 

Sedimentary  rocks  and  iron 16 

Structure  of  rock  masses 18 

The  two  series  of  iron  compounds 20 

CHAPTER  III.  THE  IRON  MINERALS  AND  THEIR  RELATIONSHIPS: 

The  Grouping  of  the  Iron  Minerals 22 

Magnetite  group      23 

Hematite  group .  24 

Limonite  or  brown-ore  group 25 

Iron  carbonate  group      26 

Iron  silicate  group 26 

Iron  sulphide  group 27 

Chemical  relationships  of  the  iron  minerals 28 

Relative  productive  importance  of  the  different  ores 29 

CHAPTER  IV.  THE  FORMATION  OF  IRON-ORE  DEPOSITS: 

Definition  of  ore  and  ore  deposit 31 

Practical  bearing  of  theories  of  origin      33 

The  principles  of  classification 35 

The  major  groups  of  ore  deposits 36 

Removal  of  iron  from  crystal  rocks      37 

ix 


x  CONTENTS 

The  transfer  and  re-deposition  of  iron 38 

The  alteration  of  existing  deposits 38 

Summary  of  working  classification 39 

Relative  importance  of  the  groups 39 

The  ratio  of  geologic  concentration      42 

The  geologic  age  of  iron  deposits 43 

CHAPTER  V.  SEDIMENTARY  OR  BEDDED  DEPOSITS: 

Importance  and  general  character 45 

Classes  of  sedimentary  ores 47 

Transported  concentrates 48 

Spring  deposits 49 

Bog  deposits 49 

Marine  basin  deposits 50 

Carbonate  deposits 51 

Extent 51 

Age  and  associated  rocks 52 

Structure  of  the  ores 52 

Composition  of  carbonate  ores      53 

Origin  of  marine  carbonates 54 

Iron  silicate  deposits 54 

Glauconites  of  ijie  ocean  bottom 55 

Cretaceous  greensands  of  New  Jersey 55 

Iron  silicate  ores  of  Europe 58 

Iron  oxide  deposits      58 

Extent  of  marine  oxide  deposits 59 

Associated  rocks 60 

Related  phenomena — fossils,  etc: 62 

Structure  of  marine  oxide  ores 62 

Composition  of  the  original  precipitate 64 

Summary  of  structural  relations 66 

The  question  of  origin 67 

Chief  typical  deposits      69 

CHAPTER  VI.  REPLACEMENTS  AND  CAVITY  FILLINGS: 

Cavity  and  pore  fillings      72 

Normal  replacements      75 

Relations  to  the  ground  surface 77 

Extent  of  the  deposits 77 

Form  of  the  deposits 78 

Composition  of  the  ores 80 

Effects  of  later  weathering 80 

Chief  typical  deposits 80 

Secondary  concentrations 81 

Extent  of  the  deposits 81 

Relations  and  importance 82 

Requisite  conditions 83 


CONTENTS  xi 

Contact  replacements 86 

Location  and  form  of  deposit 86 

Chief  known  occurrences • 87 

CHAPTER  VII.  ALTERATION  DEPOSITS 89 

Gossan  deposits 90 

The  original  minerals 90 

Process  of  alteration 91 

Character  of  the  gossan  ores  93 

Examples  and  relations 93 

Residual  deposits 94 

General  factors  involved 94 

Solution  residuals 95 

Laterite  residuals  98 

CHAPTER  VIII.  IGNEOUS  IRON  DEPOSITS 100 

Criteria  for  recognition 101 

Chief  possible  occurrences 103 

The  titaniferous  magnetites 104 

Associated  rocks 104 

Form  and  relations      105 

Character  of  ores 105 

Bibliography 105 

PART  II.  THE  VALUATION  OF  IRON  ORE  PROPERTIES 

CHAPTER  IX.  BASAL  FACTORS  IN  ORE  VALUATION: 

General  Bases  of  property  valuation 106 

Valuation  of  ore  reserves 107 

Capitalization  of  smelting  profits 109 

Market  valuations 110 

Capitalization  of  royalties  or  mining  profits 112 

References  on  reserve  valuation 113 

CHAPTER  X.  PROSPECTING  AND  TONNAGE  DETERMINATIONS: 

Reasons  for  valuation 114 

The  study  of  origin  anal,  geologic  relations 115 

Geologic  examination      115 

Probabilities  as  to  origin 116 

Application  of  geologic  studies      117 

Sedimentary  deposits      117 

Normal  replacements      117 

Secondary  concentrations 118 

Contact  deposits .  118 

Residual  deposits 118 

Prospecting  methods  and  costs .  118 

Available  methods  of  exploration 118 


xii  CONTENTS 

Choice  of  methods 119 

Core  drilling 119 

Churn  drilling 120 

Auger  drilling 120 

Pits  and  shafts 122 

Trenches  and  drifts 122 

Ore  density;  space  and  tonnage  conversions 123 

Theoretical  or  maximum,  density 123 

Factors  decreasing  density 123 

Density  of  actual  ores 124 

Lake  Superior  hematities 124 

Oolitic  and  fossil  hematites 125 

Carbonate  ores 126 

Brown  ores 126 

Magnetites 126 

CHAPTER  XI.  MINING  CONDITIONS  AND  COSTS: 

General  mining  methods 127 

Cost  of  mining  Lake  Superior  ores 129 

Cost  of  mining  red  or  Clinton  hematites 132 

Cost  of  brown  ore  mining 134 

Cost  of  mining  magnetites 136 

Costs  in  Cleveland  district,  England 138 

Costs  in  Luxembourg-Lorraine  district 139 

Comparison  of  principal  districts 140 

CHAPTER  XII.  FURNACE  AND  MILL  REQUIREMENTS: 

Status  of  the  blast  furnace 142 

Construction  and  operation 143 

Blast  furnace  fuels 144 

Fluxing  materials 145 

Chemical  limitations  of  the  blast  furnace 146 

Utilization  of  pig  iron 148 

The  various  steel  processes' 149 

Factors  influencing  metallurgic  value  of  ores 151 

CHAPTER  XIII.  COMPOSITION  AND  CONCENTRATION  OF  IRON  ORES: 

The  impurities  of  iron  ores 152 

Universal  presence  of  impurities 152 

Sources  of  the  impurities 153 

Character  of  impurities 153 

Metallic  impurities      154 

Alkaline  impurities      154 

Acid  impurities 154 

Volatile  impurities       155 

Phosphorus  and  sulphur 155 

Distribution  of  impurities  in  typical  ores 155 


CONTENTS  xiii 

The  concentration  of  iron  ores 157 

General  types  and  possibilities      157 

Actual  importance  of  concentration 159 

CHAPTER  XIV.  ORE  PRICES,  PROFITS  AND  MARKETS: 

Costs  and  prices 162 

Factors  included  in  costs 162 

Absolute  price  limits 163 

Effect  of  metallurgic  value  on  prices 164 

Division  of  the  profits 165 

Smelting  or  furnace  profits 166 

Mining  profits 167 

Royalties 168 

Actual  markets  and  prices 168 

Prices  of  Lake  Superior  ores 169 

The  Atlantic  ore  market 172 

CHAPTER  XV.  THE  EFFECT  OF  TIME  ON  VALUATION: 

Determination  of  present  value 175 

Proper  carrying  charge 176 

Possible  changes  in  ore  values 178 


PART  III.  THE  IRON  ORES  OF  THE  WORLD 

CHAPTER  XVI.  IRON  ORES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES;   GENERAL: 

Status  of  United  States  as  ore  producer      181 

American  ore  output,  1860-1912 183 

Imports  of  iron  ore      183 

Exports  of  iron  ore      184 

Tonnage  available  for  consumption 186 

American  ore  output,  by  States 186 

Iron  ore  districts  of  the  United  States 189 

Ore  consuming  districts  of  the  United  States 191 

CHAPTER  XVII.  THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  DISTRICT: 

Location  and  geology      194 

The  Lake  Superior  ore  ranges 194 

General  geology  of  the  Lake  region 196 

Origin  of  the  ores 197 

Mining  and  concentration 201 

Composition  and  grade  of  Lake  ores 202 

Changes  in  average  ore  grades 203 

Transportation  and  markets      205 

History  and  statistics 209 

Publications  on  Lake  district 211 

The  Clinton  ores  of  southern  Wisconsin  .  213 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XVIII.  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES: 

Limitations  and  advantages 215 

Principal  southern  ore  fields 216 

Red  or  Clinton  hematites 220 

Birmingham  district 222 

Chattanooga- Attalla  region 225 

Tennessee-Virginia  region 227 

Brown  ores;  Appalachian  region 228 

Brown  ores;  Tennessee  River  region 234 

Brown  ores;  northeast  Texas 236 

Magnetites  and  other  ores  of  crystalline  area 239 

Southern  iron-ore  requirements 240 

Growth  of  southern  iron  industry 241 

Southern  coal  reserves 244 

Southern  market  conditions 246 

Future  market  possibilities 248 

CHAPTER  XIX.  THE  NORTHEASTERN  UNITED  STATES: 

General  distribution  of  iron  ores 251 

Magnetites  of  Adirondack  region,  New  York 253 

Magnetities  of  New  York-New  Jersey  Highlands 255 

Magnetites  of  southeastern  Pennsylvania 258 

Clinton  red  hematites  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  .  .  .  259 

Brown  ores  of  the  northeastern  states 259 

Red  hematites  of  western  Adirondacks 260 

Carbonate  ores  of  Ohio  and  western  Pennsylvania 260 

Northeastern  iron-ore  requirements 261 

Present  ore  production 261 

Chief  sources  of  supply 262 

Present  ore  markets 262 

Prospects  of  future  development 262 

CHAPTER  XX.  THE  WESTERN  UNITED  STATES: 

Productive  status  of  the  west 264 

Hartville  region,  Wyoming 265 

Iron  Springs  region,  Utah 267 

Colorado  and  New  Mexico  ores 268 

Pacific  coast  ores 268 

The  western  ore  situation 269 

Publications  on  western  iron  ores 270 

CHAPTER  XXI.  NEWFOUNDLAND  AND  CANADA: 

Newfoundland 273 

Geology  of  ore  region 273 

The  main  ore  beds 275 

Grade  and  composition  of  ore 275 


CONTENTS  xv 

Market  points 276 

Production  and  shipments 277 

Probable  reserve  tonnages 277 

Dominion  of  Canada 278 

New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia 279 

Bathurst  region,  New  Brunswick 279 

Torbrook  region,  Nova  Scotia 281 

Quebec  and  eastern  Ontario 283 

Western  Ontario 283 

Alberta  and  eastern  British  Columbia 284 

Western  British  Columbia 285 

Status  of  iron  production  in  Canada 285 

Publications  on  Canadian  iron  ores 287 

CHAPTER  XXII.  WEST  INDIES,  MEXICO  AND  CENTRAL  AMERICA: 

Cuba 288 

South  shore  hematites 288 

North  shore  brown  ores .    .   290 

Iron-ore  industry  of  Cuba 292 

Reference  list  on  Cuban  ores 292 

Hayti  and  Porto  Rico 293 

Mexico 294 

Central  America 295 

CHAPTER  XXIII.  SOUTH  AMERICA: 

Colombia,  Venezuela  and  the  Guianas 297 

Brazil 300 

Chile,  Peru  and  Ecuador 302 

References  on  South  American  ores 304 

CHAPTER  XXIV.  EUROPE: 

Lorraine-Luxembourg  region 305 

Other  German  ore  districts 311 

Other  French  ore  districts 314 

Great  Britain 315 

Norway,  Sweden  and  Finland 322 

Spain  and  Portugal 323 

Russia 325 

Austria,  Hungary  and  Bosnia 327 

Italy,  Greece  and  the  Balkan  region 329 

Belgium 329 

CHAPTER  XXV.  ASIA,  AFRICA  AND  AUSTRALIA: 

Asia 330 

China,  Corea  and  Japan 331 

British  India.  .   333 


xvi  CONTENTS 

Africa 335 

North  Africa 336 

East  and  South  Africa 336 

Australia 337 

PART  IV.  EXTENT  AND  CONTROL  OF  IRON  ORE  RESERVES 

CHAPTER  XXVI.  THE  EXTENT  OF  AMERICAN  ORE  RESERVES: 

Credibility  of  reserve  estimates 339 

The  Tornebohm  estimate  of  1905 341 

The  Eckel  estimate  of  1907 342 

The  Hayes  estimate  of  1908 344 

The  Butler-Birkinbine  estimate  of  1909 347 

Revised  estimates,  1912 347 

Tributary  reserves 351 

CHAPTER  XXVII.  PROBABLE  DURATION  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES  : 

The  draft  on  our  reserves 353 

Apparent  annual  ore  consumption 355 

Apparent  average  ore  grade 357 

Factors  determining  average  grade 358 

Future  course  of  ore  grades" 360 

Effect  on  pig-iron  costs 363 

CHAPTER  XXVIII.  OWNERSHIP  AND  CONTROL  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES: 

Stages  in  the  evolution  of  opinion 365 

The  conservation  viewpoint 367 

Impossibility  of  actual  tonnage  monopoly 368 

Present  status  of  the  discussion 369 

Recent  views  on  ore  ownership 369 

The  fundamental  question  of  ownership 371 

Effects  of  independent  operation 373 

The  limitations  of  reserve  ownership 375 

Minimum  permissible  reserves 375 

Maximum  advisable  reserves 376 

Data  on  actual  reserves 377 

Industrial  effects  of  over-valuation 379 

The  feasibility  of  new  competition 379 

CHAPTER  XXIX.  IRON  ORE  RESERVES  OF  THE  WORLD: 

World  ore  reserve  estimates  of  1910 381 

Ore-reserves  of  North  America 385 

Dominion  of  Canada 386 

Newfoundland 386 

United  States 387 

Cuba 388 

Mexico  .  .  388 


CONTENTS  xvii 

Ore  reserves  of  South  America 388 

Brazil 389 

Venezuela,  Chile,  etc 389 

Ore  reserves  of  Europe 390 

World's  iron-ore  reserves ;  summary  estimate 391 

Probable  future  discoveries 392 

Duration  of  known  ore  supplies 393 

Grade  and  phosphorus  content 395 

Possibility  of  metallurgic  improvements 396 

CHAPTER  XXX.  WORLD  COMPETITION  IN  IRON  AND  STEEL: 

Growth  of  world's  iron  industry,  1800-1910 398 

The  rate  of  growth  of  the  iron  industry 400 

Steel  production,  consumption  and  exports 401 

The  basal  factors  in  world  competition 402 

The  wor!4  competitors  of  the  future 405 

The  limit  of  iron  and  steel  development .    .  406 

Decreased  demand 407 

Substitute  materials 408 

Raw  material  exhaustion 409 

CHAPTER XXXI.  QUESTIONS  OF  PUBLIC  POLICY: 

The  limits  of  State  interest 411 

The  encouragement  of  development 412 

The  prevention  of  monopoly 413 

The  conservation  of  iron-ore  resources 414 

The  taxation  of  iron  ores 416 

Export  duties 417 

CHAPTER  XXXII.  QUESTIONS  OF  PRIVATE  POLICY: 

Reasons  for  reserve  ownership 416 

Ore  reserves  and  the  banking  house 420 

Effects  of  over-valuation 422 

The  value  of  large  reserves 424 

The  status  of  the  low-cost  producer 426 

INDEX .  427 


IRON    ORES 


THEIR  OCCURRENCE,  VALUATION  AND 
CONTROL 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  INDUSTRIAL  STATUS  OF  IRON 

"Gold  is  for  the  mistress — silver  for  the  maid 
Copper  for  the  craftsman,  cunning  at  his  trade. 
Good,"  said  the  Baron,  sitting  in  his  hall 

"But  Iron — Cold  Iron — is  master  of  them  all." 

Rewards  and  Fairies. 

Certes  above  rare  metals  iron  aids  man  in  need  ever. 

England' 's  Commonweal  Expounded. 

A  proposition  to  which  both  the  modern  Imperialist  poet  and 
the  ancient  Puritan  divine  can  give  their  assent  must  needs  be 
one  of  very  broad  and  general  application;  and  the  two  and  a  half 
centuries  which  have  elapsed  between  the  two  statements 
regarding  the  status  of  iron  show  that  we  are  dealing  with 
something  more  than  a  temporary  situation. 

It  is  of  course  the  veriest  commonplace  to  say  that  iron  is  the 
cheapest,  the  most  abundant  and  the  most  useful  of  all  the  metals 
now  employed  by  man.  But,  as  is  so  often  the  case  with 
matters  of  common  knowledge,  the  very  familiarity  of  such 
statements  is  apt  to  prevent  careful  examination  of  the  basis  on 
which  they  rest,  and  few  will  realize  to  what  an  extent  iron 
differs  from  J-he  other  metals  in  these  regards.  In  this  volume 
we  are  about  to  take  up  the  study  of  iron  ores  in  their  various 
industrial  and  political  relations;  and  before  doing  this  it  seems 
advisable  to  give  some  consideration  to  certain  facts  relative  to 
the  metal  into  which  these  ores  will  ultimately  be  transformed 
This  introductory  discussion,  brief  though  it  must  necessarily  be, 
will  serve  to  give  some  idea  as  to  the  present  industrial  status  of 
the  metal  iron,  and  will  also  emphasize  the  fact  that  questions  as 
to  iron-ore  resources  are  not  merely  of  local  or  individual  inter- 
est, but  are  of  the  greatest  possible  general  importance. 

1 


2  IRON  ORES 

In  taking  up  consideration  of  the  industrial  status  of  iron,  and 
its  relative  commercial  importance  among  the  metals,  it  is  of 
course  inadvisable  to  confine  attention  to  the  conditions  in  any 
one  country,  for  improvements  in  transportation  are  tending 
toward  a  very  broad  world-market  in  such  products.  It  may 
also  be  noted  that  the  distribution  of  metallic  ore  deposits 
throughout  the  world  is  so  irregular  that  much  of  the  truth  is 
missed  if  we  narrow  the  scope  of  the  study.  Fortunately  the 
statistical  data  as  to  metal  production  and  prices  are  extensive 
and  reasonably  trustworthy,  so  that  there  will  be  little  difficulty 
in  taking  up  the  question  on  the  broadest  possible  basis. 

Relative  Tonnage  Importance. — At  the  outset,  a  statement  as 
to  relative  tonnage  will  serve  as  a  convenient  starting-point. 
Pig  iron  now  makes  up  95  percent  of  the  total  tonnage  of  all  kinds 
of  metal  annually  produced  in  the  world.  The  exact  facts  on  this 
point,  as  shown  by  the  statistics  for  1910,  are  given  in  the  table 
below.  The  data  in  this  table  referring  to  production  of  lead, 
copper,  zinc,  tin,  aluminum,  nickel,  silver  and  quicksilver  are 
taken  from  the  annual  publication  of  the  Metallgesellschaft  of 
Frankfort;  the  gold  tonnage  is  calculated  from  reports  of  the 
Director  of  the  United  States  Mint;  and  the  pig-iron  tonnage  is 
an  estimate  by  the  present  writer,  based  on  official  reports  of  the 
various  iron-producing  countries. 

WORLD'S  METAL  OUTPUT,  1910;  TONNAGE  AND  VALUE 
Metal  Metric  tons  Total  value,  dollars 

Pig  iron  65,300,000  $979,500,000 

Lead  1,139,700  74,200,000 

Copper  836,900  254,850,000 

Zinc  816,600  94,425,000 

Tin  115,700  90,350,000 

Aluminum  43,800  15,875,000 

Nickel  24,500  16,325,000 

Silver  7,437  135,475,000 

Quicksilver  4,100  5,575,000 

Gold  704  454,214,000 


68,289,441  $2,120,789,000 

Relative  Total  Values. — The  disproportion  between  the 
tonnage  of  iron  and  that  of  all  other  metals  combined,  as  shown 
in  the  preceding  table,  is  so  great  that  there  is  no  need  to  empha- 
size the  fact  by  putting  it  in  graphic  form.  But  with  regard  to 
the  question  of  total  values,  the  comparative  figures  are  closer 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  STATUS  OF  IRON 


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4  IRON  ORES 

together,  so  that  a  diagram  will  show  the  situation  in  this  regard 
very  satisfactorily.     The  accompanying  diagram  (Fig.   1)   has 
accordingly  been  prepared  to  illustrate  this  point. 
The  Metals  Compared,  1901-1910.  —  We   are  dealing,  then, 

Quicksilver\  with  a    metal  which 

Aluminum  \  so  far  as  tonnage  is 

Nickel  I  concerned    is   nine- 


L  ead  •§  ^een  times  as  import- 

T.       M  ant  as  all  the  other 

Tin     mm 

Zinc    mm  metals     combined; 

Silver  mmm  while     as    regards 

Co    ermmmmm  value,   even     when 

_  cheapest  commercial 

lron  Bmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm  f  .    .        ., 

form  as  pig  iron,  it 

FIG.  1.  —  Relative   values  of  annual  output  of       s^jjj      accounts      for 
chief  commercial   metals.  a,most    half     Qf    the 

total  value  of  the  world's  metal  production.  Before  going 
further  it  may  be  best  to  consider  for  a  moment  a  series  of  com- 
parisons covering,  not  a  single  year  only,  but  an  entire  decade. 

The  table  on  page  3  is  made  up  like  the  preceding  one,  the  data 
as  to  the  non-ferrous  metals  (except  gold)  being  from  the  reports 
of  the  Metallgesellschaft;  while  the  iron  data  are  quoted  either 
directly  from  the  reports  of  Mr.  J.  M.  Swank,  or  prepared  by  the 
present  writer. 

In  order  to  put  this  comparison  into  more  definite  shape,  the 
percentage  of  increase  has  been  calculated  for  each  metal  during 
the  nine-year  period  1901-1910,  and  is  given  in  the  lowest 
line  of  the  table.  This  brings  out  certain  interesting  features  as 
regards  the  manner  in  which  the  various  metals  have  responded 
to  the  great  increase  in  general  industrial  and  commercial 
activity  during  that  period. 

It  will  be  seen,  for  example,  that  of  the  four  leading  tonnage 
metals,  three  have  shown  almost  exactly  the  same  rate  of  increase 
of  output,  while  the  fourth  —  lead  —  has  lagged  behind  very 
noticeably.  Of  the  five  metals  (excluding  gold  for  the  moment) 
of  small  tonnage,  two  have  shown  a  very  remarkable  rate  of 
increase,  while  the  three  others  have  increased  at  a  rate  very  much 
slower  than  the  average. 

Taking  the  whole  period  and  all  the  metals  into  consideration, 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  heavy  tonnage  metals  have  increased  in 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  STATUS  OF  IRON 


output  at  so  nearly  the  same  rate  that  in  1901,  as  in  1910,  iron 
accounts  for  almost  exactly  95  percent  of  the  total  metal 
tonnage.  It  might  further  be  noted  that,  throughout  this 
period,  the  iron-copper  ratio  does  not  change  appreciably, 
holding  in  the  neighborhood  of  80  : 1. 

Attention  may  profitably  be  turned,  for  a  moment,  to  the  rate 
of  increase  in  the  gold  output,  for  here  we  get  into  rather  close 
touch  with  a  question  which  is  often  discussed  on  a  rather  vague 
and  general  basis.  It  will  be  seen  that  in  the  period  1901-1910, 
the  world's  annual  output  of  gold  increased  79  percent.  Now 
this  is  not  only  a  very  large  rate  of  increase,  considered  by  itself, 
but  it  is  obviously  entirely  out  of  line  with  the  rate  at  which  the 
more  important  industrial  metals  have  increased.  It  would  be 
very  difficult  to  believe  that  the  demand  for  gold  for  industrial 
uses  has  during  this  decade  increased  much  more  rapidly  than  the 
demand  for  iron,  or  copper  or  lead.  But,  unless  we  can  accept 
such  a  theory  the  only  remaining  explanation  is  that  the  gold 
mined  in  excess  of  the  actual  industrial  demand  must  operate  to 
temporarily  lower  the  value  of  gold,  relative  to  all  other  com- 
modities. It  would  be  difficult  to  place  any  other  construction  on 
the  facts  of  the  case,  as  brought  out  incidentally  by  our  present 
study  of  the  general  metal  situation,  but  since  we  are  not  engaged 
in  an  examination  of  the  cause  of  the  universal  rise  in  commodity 
prices,  the  matter  can  be  dropped  at  this  point. 

Summary  of  Comparisons. — The  principal  facts  brought  out 
by  a  study  of  the  preceding  tables  can  now  be  conveniently 
placed  in  comparative  form,  as  in  the  summary  table  below. 

SUMMARY  OF  COMPARISONS  OF  VARIOUS  METALS,  1910 


Metal 

•  Percentage  of  world's 
metal  output  by 

Percentage  of  world's 
metal  output  by 

Selling  price 
per  ton, 

tonnage 

value 

basis  iron=  1 

Iron  

95  .  62  percent 

46  .  2  percent 

1 

Lead  

1  .  67  percent 

3  .  5  percent 

4 

Copper  

1  .  23  percent 

12.0  percent 

20 

Zinc  

1.19  percent 

4.5  percent 

8 

Tin  

0.17  percent 

4.3  percent 

52 

Aluminum  

0  .  06  percent 

0  .  7  percent 

24 

Nickel  

0.040  percent 

0  .  8  percent 

46 

Silver  

0.011  percent 

6  .  3  percent 

1,200 

Quicksilver  

0  .  006  percent 

0  .  3  percent 

90 

Gold  

0  .  001  percent 

21.4  percent 

40,000 

100.  00  percent 

100.0  per  cent 

6  IRON  ORES 

This  covers  the  main  comparisons  which  can  be  made  between 
the  leading  commercial  metals. 

Relative  Natural  Scarcity  of  Metals. — A  matter  of  great  interesa 
in  the  present  connection,  were  it  possible  to  secure  definite  date 
concerning  it,  would  be  the  determination  of  the  actual  relativs 
scarcity  of  metals  in  nature.  Various  geologists  and  chemists 
have  made  investigations  along  this  line,  and  though  from  the 
nature  of  the  case  precise  and  accurate  results  can  not  be 
obtained,  certain  broad  features  as  to  relative  abundance  and 
scarcity  are  brought  out  sharply  enough. 

The  following  table  contains  the  data  available  with  respect 
to  the  relative  natural  scarcity  of  most  of  the  commercial  metals. 
The  percentages  credited  to  aluminum,  iron,  nickel  and  manganese 
are  derived  from  the  most  recent  work  of  Clarke,1  and  are  based 
upon  a  very  large  number  of  analyses  of  sedimentary  and  igneous 
rocks,  made  in  the  laboratory  of  the  United  States  Geological 
Survey.  These  analyses  have  been  compared,  weighted  and 
averaged  by  Dr.  Clarke,  and  the  four  figures  particularly  quoted 
here  may  be  accepted  as  being  as  close  to  the  truth  as  we  are 
likely  to  get  in  this  matter.  The  figures  for  aluminum  and  iron, 
especially,  are  unlikely  to  be  materially  changed  by  any  further 
analytical  work.  Those  for  manganese  and  nickel,  owing  to 
being  based  upon  a  smaller  number  of  occurrences,  are  of  course 
less  firmly  determined. 

The  figures  quoted  for  the  other  metals  covered  by  the  table — • 
zinc,  lead,  copper,  silver  and  gold — are  estimates  made  by 
Lindgren2  in  a  recent  publication,  and  may  be  taken  as  repre- 
senting the  most  authoritative  statement  upon  the  relative 
scarcity  of  the  rarer  commercial  metals. 

RELATIVE  NATURAL  SCARCITY  OF  COMMERCIAL   METALS 

Metal  Percentage  in  Relative  abundance, 

earth's  crust  gold=  1 

Aluminum  7 . 84  percent  15,680,000 

Iron  4.44  8,800,000 

Manganese  0.08  160,000 

Nickel  0.023  46,000 

Copper  0.0075  15,000 

Zinc  0.0040  8,000 

Lead  0.0020  4,000 

Silver  0.00001  20 

Gold  0.0000005  1 

*Data  of  Geochemistry,  Bulletin  491,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  32-34. 

2  Mineral  Deposits,  p.  14. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  STATUS  OF  IRON  7 

The  figures  given  in  the  third  column  have  been  calculated 
from  those  in  the  second,  in  order  to  bring  out  more  sharply  some 
of  the  comparative  results. 

If  the  preceding  table,  and  particularly  its  last  column,  be  com- 
pared with  tables  previously  given  (pages  2,  5)  regarding  the 
actual  output  and  value  of  the  different  metals,  certain  very  re- 
markable disparities  will  at  once  appear.  The  extent  and  the 
importance  of  these  differences  are  sufficient  to  suggest  that  fur- 
ther investigation,  both  by  geologists  and  economists,  would  be 
well  repaid.  In  the  present  place  it  is  not  possible  to  do  more 
than  call  attention  to  their  general  character  and  bearings. 

It  will  be  best  to  confine  attention  to  more  important  commer- 
cial metals,  and  compare  them  in  turn  as  regards  estimated  natu- 
ral scarcity,  actual  annual  tonnage  produced,  and  average  price 
per  ton.  Using  gold  in  each  case  as  the  basis  of  reference,  the 
results  will  work  out  somewhat  as  in  the  following  little  table,  in 
which  round  numbers  are  used  for  convenience. 

Metal  Natural  abundance  Annual  output  Cheapness 

Gold  1  1  1 

Silver  20  10  30 

Lead  4,000  1,600  10,003 

Zinc  8,000  1,150  5,000 

Copper  15,000  1,180  2,000 

Iron  8,800,000  92,000  40,000 

It  can  be  seen  at  once  that  natural  scarcity  has  very  little  to  do 
with  either  the  price  of  a  metal  or  with  the  tonnage  produced. 
Even  allowing  for  the  wide  differences  which  exist  in  commercial 
utility  of  the  various  metals  covered  by  this  table,  there  are 
sufficient  disparities  to  suggest  that  disproportionate  efforts  are 
expended  in  the  search  for  certain  metals,  and  in  the  mining  and 
metallurgical  difficulties  encountered  in  placing  them  in  com- 
mercial form.  The  most  striking  instance  is  gold,  which  seems  to 
be  produced  in  tonnages  far  larger  than  could  be  expected,  while 
its  relative  commercial  value  is  far  lower  than  its  natural  scarcity 
would  seem  to  justify. 

The  American  Situation. — An  interesting  final  comparison 
might  deal  with  the  place  occupied  by  iron  in  the  total  mineral 
output  of  the  United  States.  The  United  States  Geological  Sur- 
vey has  estimated  that  the  value  of  the  entire  mineral  production 
of  the  country  during  1910  was  somewhat  over  two  thousand 
million  dollars.  Of  this  total,  iron  accounts  for  over  one-fifth. 


8  IRON  ORES 

As  the  distribution  of  the  total  may  show  some  facts  not  com- 
monly understood,  it  has  been  summarized  here  as  follows: 

Fuels:  coal,  oil  and  natural  gas $822,453,349 

Pig  iron 425,115,235 

Structural  materials:  cements,  stone  and  clay  products 362,808,130 

All  other  metals  and  non-metals 393,368,155 


Total  value  mineral  production $2,003,744,869 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  metals,  other  than  iron,  must  be  of  little 
importance  in  reality,  though  they  bulk  large  in  the  popular 
imagination.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  monetary  uses  of  gold  and 
the  general  utility  of  iron  have  combined  to  give  a  fictitious  impor- 
tance to  the  metals  in  general,  as  compared  with  the  non-metallic 
mineral  products. 

Summary. — To  summarize  the  situation  as  regards  iron,  then, 
we  are  dealing  with  a  metal  which  the  furnaces  of  the  world  are 
now  turning  out  at  the  rate  of  over  sixty-five  million  tons  a  year; 
and  this  annual  output  is  increasing  rapidly  and  steadily.  When 
business  is  good,  the  furnaces  in  some  distrcts  will  realize  as  much 
as  one  cent  a  pound  for  their  product;  when  business  is  poor, 
some  districts  will  sell  their  iron  for  one-half  cent  a  pound,  or  even 
less.  The  product  itself  will,  in  either  case,  enter  into  the  com- 
merce of  the  world,  and  into  the  industrial  progress  of  the  race, 
in  a  way  not  even  approached  by  any  other  metal. 

Compared  with  this,  the  other  metals  are  not  seriously  impor- 
tant as  to  tonnage;  they  are  produced  at  larger  rates  of  profit, 
and  sold  at  far  higher  prices;  and  even  a  temporary  scarcity  in 
one  of  them  simply  means  the  use  of  some  substitute  metal.  It 
is  obvious  that  the  metal  iron  could  not  be  so  much  cheaper,  so 
much  more  abundant  in  supply,  and  therefore  so  much  more 
generally  useful  if  it  were  not  for  natural  advantages  as  to  the 
extent  and  distribution  of  the  ores  from  which  it  is  made.  In  the 
following  chapter,  where  the  natural  ores  of  iron  are  described, 
some  space  will  be  given  to  consideration  of  the  original  abun- 
dance in  nature  of  this  element;  while  in  later  chapters  dealing 
with  iron-ore  deposits  the  methods  will  be  noted  by  which  this 
original  abundance  has  been  made  available  for  use.  It  is  also 
obvious  that  in  view  of  its  importance  industrially  and  commer- 
cially, matters  which  seriously  affect  the  iron  industry  must  have 
a  more  direct  effect  on  general  prosperity  than  questions  relating 
to  less  important  industries. 


PAET  I.  THE  ORIGIN  OF  IRON  ORES. 

CHAPTER  II 

THE  GEOLOGIC  AND  CHEMICAL  RELATIONS  OF  IRON 

In  discussing  the  industrial  status  of  the  metal  iron,  it  has  been 
seen  that  it  is  produced  in  enormous  quantities,  far  surpassing 
in  tonnage  all  the  other  metals  combined;  and  that  in  spite  of  the 
great  demand  for  it,  iron  is  produced  and  sold  at  a  very  low  price, 
far  lower  than  the  price  of  any  other  metal.  It  is  clear  enough 
that,  even  allowing  for  cheap  and  efficient  processes  of  extraction, 
metallic  iron  could  not  be  turned  out  at  so  many  points,  in  such 
quantities  and  at  such  prices  unless  its  ores  were  both  extremely 
abundant  and  widely  distributed  over  the  earth's  surface.  This 
is  indeed  the  case;  and  in  turn  we  may  trace  back  this  abundance 
of  workable  iron  ores  to  an  original  natural  abundance  of  the 
element  iron  in  the  rocks  which  compose  the  crust  of  the  earth 
and  to  certain  chemical  relations  which  have  aided  in  putting 
a  fraction  of  the  total  iron  content  into  convenient  form  for 
extraction  and  utilization. 

Natural  Abundance  of  Iron. — It  has  been  determined  by 
Professor  F.  W.  Clarke,1  who  has  made  an  exhaustive  study  of 
the  average  composition  of  the  earth's  crustal  rocks,  that  the 
element  iron  makes  up  4.44  percent  by  weight  of  the  known 
portion  of  the  earth.  If  it  were  possible  to  form  any  definite 
idea  of  the  composition  of  the  central  parts  of  the  globe,  it  is 
probable  that  iron  would  take  a  still  more  prominent  place  as  to 
abundance  among  the  chemical  elements.  As  it  is,  it  is  outranked 
only  by  oxygen,  silicon  and  aluminum,  though  it  is  closely 
followed  by  lime.  The  percentages  of  the  more  common  ele- 
ments are  as  follows: 

AVERAGE  COMPOSITION  OF  THE  EARTH'S  CRUST  (F.  W.  CLARKE) 

Oxygen  47. 17  percent       Hydrogen  0.23  percent 

Silicon  28.00  Carbon  0.19 

Aluminum  7.84  Phosphorus  0.11 

Iron  4.44  Sulphur  0.11 

Calcium  3.42  Fluorine  0.10 

Potassium  2.49  Barium  0.09 

Sodium  2.43  Manganese  0.08 

Magnesium  2.27  Chlorine  0.06 

Titanium  0.44  Strontium  0.03 

All  others  0.50 
1  Bulletin  491,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  33-34. 

9 


10  IRON  ORES 

Mere  inspection  of  this  table  will  serve  to  indicate  the  com- 
parative abundance  of  the  element  iron,  so  far  as  the  bulk  com- 
position of  the  earth's  crust  is  concerned.  As  will  be  noted  later, 
this  is  not  the  whole  of  the  story,  for  if  mere  abundance  in  the 
crustal  average  were  the  sole  basis  of  industrial  availability, 
aluminum  and  silicon  would  be  far  more  important  com- 
mercially than  iron. 

Iron  Ores  and  Ore  Deposits. — In  following  out  this  line  of 
investigation,  it  is  next  to  be  noted  that  the  world's  supply  of 
commercial  metallic  iron  is  not  procured  from  such  widely 
diffused  sources  as  the  rocks  of  the  earth's  crust  have,  by  the 
preceding  analysis,  been  proven  to  be,  but  from  well-localized 
deposits  of  certain  definite  minerals  rich  in  iron. 

Iron  is  a  more  or  less  important  constituent  of  a  large  number  of 
different  minerals,  but  only  a  few  of  these  are  under  present 
conditions  available  for  use  as  iron  ores.  In  a  later  chapter  it 
will  be  possible  to  discuss  the  composition  and  relationships  of 
the  principal  iron  minerals  in  proper  detail.  Here  it  is  only 
necessary  to  say  that  the  bulk  of  our  commercial  iron  is  produced 
from  one  of  four  different  minerals  or  ores.  Of  these  three  are 
oxides  of  iron,  and  one  is  a  carbonate.  The  oxide  ores  are  by 
far  the  more  important,  the  carbonate  being  only  locally  service- 
able when  fuel  conditions  are  satisfactory.  The  three  oxide 
ores,  named  in  the  order  of  their  commercial  importance  are 
hematite,  magnetite,  and  brown  ore  (limonite). 

It  has  also  been  noted  above  that  the  iron  minerals,  no  matter 
how  pure  they  might  be,  would  be  unserviceable  commercially 
if  they  occurred  diffused  or  scattered  through  a  large  mass  of 
barren  rock.  In  order  to  be  commercially  available,  the  ore 
minerals  must  occur  in  fairly  well  concentrated  and  localized 
deposits.  The  origin  and  characters  of  such  deposits  will  be 
treated  in  some  detail  in  the  later  chapters,  but  before  taking  up 
the  classification  and  detailed  discussion  of  the  different  types 
of  iron-ore  deposits,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  briefly  the  basal 
chemical  and  geologic  principles  and  data  on  which  any  such 
detailed  study  must  be  founded.  It  may  be  assumed  that  the 
iron  now  concentrated  into  workable  ore  deposits  was  once 
contained  in  diffused  form  in  the  igneous  rocks,  and  that  in  the 
course  of  the  alteration  and  decay  of  these  rocks  their  contained 
iron  was  freed,  carried  off  either  mechanically  or  in  solution,  and 


GEOLOGIC  AND  CHEMICAL  RELA  TIONS  OF  IRON    1 1 

re-deposited  elsewhere.  Before  discussing  the  particular  ways  in 
which  our  existing  iron-ore  deposits  were  formed,  it  is  evidently 
advisable  to  consider  the  form  and  amount  in  which  iron  occurs  in 
the  igneous  rocks,  the  extent  to  which  it  has  been  carried  over  to 
form  part  of  the  normal  sedimentary  rocks,  and  the  chief  chemical 
reactions  which  can  be  relied  on  to  aid  in  the  transfer  and  deposi- 
tion of  the  iron.  These  basal  data  will  be  taken  up  in  the  present 
section  of  the  chapter. 

The  Growth  of  the  Earth. — Many  of  our  commercial  iron 
deposits  are  of  quite  recent  origin,  but  others  date  far  back  in 
geologic  history.  Throughout  the  discussion  of  ore  deposits  it 
will  be  necessary  to  refer  at  intervals  to  the  conditions  which 
have  existed  at  earlier  stages  in  the  history  of  the  earth  and  in 
order  to  make  such  references  intelligible  it  will  be  well  to  sum- 
marize briefly,  in  the  present  place,  the  chief  factors  in  the  growth 
of  the  earth. 

For  our  present  purposes  it  is  sufficiently  accurate  to  assume 
that  the  earth,  in  the  earliest  stage  of  its  history  requiring  con- 
sideration here,  was  a  fused  mass,  approximately  spherical  in 
shape,  cooling  slowly  from  the  exterior  inward,  and  surrounded 
by  an  envelope  of  gases.  When  this  cooling  had  progressed  far 
enough,  the  earth's  exterior  and  center  solidified  gradually.  A 
surface  or  crust  of  igneous  rocks  was  thus  formed,  while  local 
differences  in  the  rate  of  cooling  caused  irregularities  in  this  sur- 
face. Combinations  of  the  cooling  gases  caused  the  precipitation 
of  water,  in  the  form  of  rain;  and  with  the  action  of  the  first  sur- 
face water  the  formation  of  the  sedimentary  rocks  was  begun. 
The  fallen  rain  gathered  in  slight  depressions  of  the  crust  to  form 
the  earliest  streams  and  rivers;  and  followed  these  courses  to 
deeper  depressions  which  formed  the  earliest  seas  and  oceans. 
In  its  course  the  water,  whether  raindrop  or  stream,  carried  off 
small  portions  of  the  rocks  it  encountered,  transporting  them 
either  mechanically  or  in  solution,  and  deposited  them  finally  as 
sediments.  This  process  has  continued  to  the  present  day,  a 
steady  supply  of  detritus  being  carried  to  the  seas;  and  it  is  obvi- 
ous that  only  the  action  of  some  counter-balancing  process  can 
prevent  all  the  land  areas  being  worn  down  to  sea-level.  The 
necessary  compensatory  action  is  afforded  by  the  gradual 
depression,  at  intervals,  of  portions  of  the  sea-bottom  which  have 
been  overloaded  by  deposits  of  sediment,  and  the  consequent 


12  IRON  ORES 

relative  elevation  of  the  land  areas.  The  process  is  therefore  con- 
tinuous, forming  a  regular  three-phase  cycle,  the  phases  being  (1) 
erosion  of  high  lands  by  running  water;  (2)  deposition  of  the 
resulting  detritus  on  the  sea-bottom;  (3)  overloading  and  con- 
sequent depression  of  parts  of  the  sea-bottom;  with  a  corre- 
sponding relative  elevation  of  the  land,  and  the  recommence- 
ment of  erosion.  At  intervals  in  the  earth's  history  these  regular 
cyclical  changes  have  been  aided  or  retarded  by  less  regular 
occurrences.  At  some  periods,  for  example,  igneous  activity  has 
been  more  pronounced,  so  that  masses  of  fused  rock  have  been 
forced  up  from  the  interior  to  cool  at  or  near  the  surface;  heat 
and  pressure,  long  continued,  have  caused  great  physical  and 
chemical  changes  in  deeply  buried  rock  masses;  minor  movements 
in  the  earth's  crust  have  caused  folds,  faults  and  joints  in  the  rock 
beds;  and  temperature  changes  have  altered  conditions  in  the 
different  areas.  All  of  these  phenomena  have  affected  the 
arrangement  and  composition  of  the  rocks,  and  have  aided  in 
such  rearrangement  of  their  mineral  contents  as  have  finally 
produced  our  existing  ore  deposits. 

The  Relative  Age  of  Rocks. — Whenever  the  study  of  any  par- 
ticular ore  deposit  is  taken  up,  it  will  be  found  that  the  geologic 
factors  which  have  just  been  summarized  have  a  very  immediate 
and  practical  bearing  upon  the  pro:  lem.  The  chief  points  which 
must  inevitably  be  considered  relate  to  the  age  and  character  of 
the  rocks  associated  with  the  ores,  and  to  their  distribution  and 
relative  attitude. 

The  geologist,  confronted  with  a  finished  product — a  given 
tract  of  country — endeavors  to  work  out  its  history.  Usually 
the  first  step  in  this  direction  will  be  to  map  the  areas  covered  by 
different  kinds  of  rock,  but  along  with  this  areal  mapping  he  must 
carry  on  studies  to  determine  the  relative  age  of  the  various  rock 
formations  which  occur  within  the  limits  of  the  tract  under  con- 
sideration. In  doing  this  the  following  criteria  are  of  most 
service. 

(a)  Superposition. — Since  sedimentary  rocks  are  surface  de- 
posits, it  is  obvious  that  of  two  series  of  sedimentary  rocks,  the 
overlying  series  must  be  the  younger,  provided  that  no  serious 
earth  movements  have  altered  their  relative  position  since  they 
were  deposited. 

(6)  Contained  Fragments. — If    one    rock    formation    contains 


GEOLOGIC  AND  CHEMICAL  RELA  TIONS  OF  IRON    13 

pebbles  or  other  fragments  of  material  evidently  derived  from 
another  formation,  the  fragment-containing  bed  must  have  been 
formed  after  the  other  had  been  deposited. 

(c)  Contained  Fossils. — This  criterion,  which  is  usually  the 
most  exact  and  positive  of  all,  is  not  immediately  evident  like 
the  two  preceding.  In  the  progress  of  geologic  science,  it  has 
been  ascertained  that  rocks  of  certain  age  are  characterized  by 
certain  assemblages  of  fossil  remains.  Life  was,  so  far  as  known, 
existent  before  the  formation  of  our  earliest  sedimentary  rocks. 
Through  the  following  ages,  however,  it  has  greatly  changed  in 
type;  and  this  gradual  evolution  in  living  organisms  aids  in  de- 
termining the  relative  ages  of  the  rocks  in  which  their  remains 
are  now  found  enclosed.  Comparison  of  the  fossils  found  in 
rocks  of  the  particular  area  under  study,  with  those  occurring 
in  some  area  where  the  geologic  succession  is  already  known,  will 
therefore  serve  to  fix  the  relative  position  and  age  of  the  new 
rock  series. 

Geologic  Chronology. — By  the  careful  application  of  the 
criteria  briefly  described  in  the  preceding  section,  a  fairly  com- 
plete geologic  chronology  has  been  gradually  worked  out  to 
cover  the  whole  extent  of  earth  history.  For  convenience  of 
reference  and  comparison,  all  of  geologic  time  is  primarily  divided 
into  twelve  periods,  which  in  turn  are  subdivided  into  epochs. 
Still  more  minute  subdivisions  are  stages,  while  the  final  unit  of 
division  is  the  formation. 

This  system  of  subdivision  gives  a  series  of  time  intervals 
which,  taken  together,  cover  all  geologic  history.  The  names 
of  the  periods  are  given  later  in  order  downward  from  the 
most  recent  (Quaternary)  to  the  earliest  (Archaean).  In  a  few 
cases  the  subdivisions  into  epochs  are  also  given. 

To  the  engineer  the  determination  of  the  exact  geologic  age 
of  the  rocks  of  any  given  district  is  rarely  a  matter  of  importance, 
except  in  so  far  as  geologic  age  may  affect  the  character  of  the 
mineral  products  which  the  rocks  may  contain.  In  any  par- 
ticular area,  a  relation  between  geologic  age  and  character  of 
mineral  product  is,  of  course,  quite  common.  A  case  in  point 
is  the  red  or  fossil  iron  ore,  so  important  to  the  iron  industry  of 
the  southern  United  States.  This  ore  occurs  in  the  eastern 
United  States  in  rocks  of  Clinton  age,  and  the  presence  or  absence 
of  the  ore  on  any  particular  property  can  .therefore  be  inferred  on 


14 


IRON  ORES 


purely  geologic  grounds.  In  Luxembourg,  however,  an  entirely 
similar  ore  occurs  in  rocks  of  much  later  age — so  that  it  is  evident 
that  such  a  generalization  is  safe  only  within  rather  close  geo- 
graphic limits. 


Cenozoic . 


Mesozoic . 


Period 

Quaternary                       \ 

Epoch 

[Recent 

Tertiary 

Pleistocene 
Pliocene 
Miocene 

Oligocene 
Eocene 

Cretaceous 

Jurassic 

Triassic 


Paleozoic 


Pre-Cambrian 


Carboniferous .... 

Devonian 

Silurian 

Ordovician 

Cambrian 

Algonkian 

Archaean 


Permian 

Pennsylvanian  or  Coal  Measures 

Mississippian  or  Subcarboniferous 


Whatever  may  be  the  facts  as  to  age,  there  is  still  to  be  con- 
sidered the  matter  of  rock  classification,  so  that  it  may  be  de- 
termined what  kinds  of  rocks  are  associated  with  the  ores.  The 
classification  will  depend,  first  upon  the  mode  of  origin  of  the 
rock,  and  second  upon  its  composition.  So  far  as  origin  is  con- 
cerned, rocks  are  divided  into  igneous  and  sedimentary.  Iron, 
in  one  form  or  another,  is  almost  universally  present  in  the 
rocks  of  both  groups. 

Igneous  Rocks. — The  igneous  rocks  are  those  which  have  been- 
formed  by  the  cooling  of  fused  material.  The  original  crust  of 
the  earth  was  of  course  formed  entirely  of  igneous  rocks,  but  it  is 
highly  improbable  that  any  of  this  original  crust  is  now  exposed 
at  the  earth's  surface.  The  igneous  rocks  with  which  we  actually 
have  to  deal  are  of  later  origin,  being  derived  from  molten 
material  which  at  different  periods  has  been  forced  up  into  and 
through  other  rocks.  In  most  cases  this  molten  rock  did  not 
reach  the  surface  while  fused,  but  cooled  and  solidified  slowly 
while  still  covered  by  thick  masses  of  overlying  rock,  and  is  now 


GEOLOGIC  AND  CHEMICAL  RELA  TIONS  OF  IRON    15 

exposed  to  view  owing  to  the  erosion  and  removal  of  this  covering. 

When  molten  masses  cooled  in  large  bodies,  or  at  considerable 
depths  below  the  surface,  the  solidification  was  in  consequence 
so  slow  as  to  permit  the  formation  of  large  crystals  of  the  different 
constituent  minerals.  Our  ordinary  granites  are  good  examples 
of  such  slowly  cooled  products.  But  when  the  local  supply  of 
molten  material  was  small,  or  when  solidification  took  place  at 
or  near  the  surface,  the  cooling  was  so  rapid  that  the  resulting 
rocks  are  made  up  of  very  small  mineral  crystals,  often  enveloped 
in  a  glassy  matrix;  while  a  still  more  rapid  cooling  might  result 
in  a  rock  having  an  entirely  glassy  structure,  absolutely  free 
from  crystals.  If,  as  happened  in  places,  the  igneous  material 
was  introduced  into  the  air  or  into  water  while  still  molten  (as 
in  volcanic  action),  the  result  was  the  formation  of  porous  prod- 
ucts— volcanic  ash,  pumice,  etc. 

Perhaps  the  conditions  above  outlined  may  be  more  clearly 
realized  if  they  are  compared  with  a  parallel  series  of  perfectly 
familiar  phenomena  which  occur  every  day  in  the  handling  of 
slag  at  blast  furnaces.  If  furnace  slag  is  cooled  with  very  great 
slowness,  it  will  develop  crystals  of  various  silicate  minerals. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  slag  as  it  usually  cools  on  a  slag  bank 
has  an  entirely  glassy  texture.  Finally,  if  the  molten  slag  is 
led  into  water,  or  if  a  current  of  steam,  air  or  water  is  injected 
into  the  stream  of  molten  slag,  the  slag  will  cool  or  granulate  so 
suddenly  as  to  assume  a  porous  texture,  exactly  like  a  volcanic 
ash. 

Since  all  igneous  rocks  are  formed  by  direct  cooling  from  a 
state  of  fusion,  it  is  obvious  that  none  of  them  can  show  any  true 
bedding,  for  that  is  a  characteristic  of  materials  deposited  by  or  in 
water.  The  differences  in  structure  can  not  be  due  to  the  sorting 
influence  of  water,  but  must  be  entirely  due  to  the  varying 
conditions  under  which  they  cooled,  or  to  the  effects  of  later 
earth  movements  on  the  cooled  mass.  Considering  igneous 
rocks  in  general,  two  different  types  of  structure  may  exist. 

1.  In  an  igneous  rock  which  has  solidified  quietly  from  a  fused 
state,  and  which  has  not  been  later  subjected  to  severe  external 
stresses,  the  constituent  mineral  crystals  are  irregularly  arranged, 
showing  no  trace  of  parallel  banding  or  lamination.     Such  rocks 
are  termed  massive  igneous  rocks. 

2.  If,  however,  rocks  of  this  same  origin  and  composition  had 


16  IRON  ORES 

been  subjected,  either  during  or  after  their  cooling,  to  external 
pressure,  a  laminated  structure  might  have  been  developed. 
When  this  has  occurred  under  favorable  conditions  the  con- 
stituent minerals  may  be  arranged  in  more  or  less  definite 
alternating  bands;  while  when  the  lamination  is  less  completely 
developed  the  mineral  crystals  will  merely  be  arranged  with  their 
longer  axes  in  the  same  direction.  In  either  case  the  rock  is 
termed  a  gneiss. 

The  igneous  rocks  consist  largely  of  silica — from  35  to  80  per- 
cent— with  lesser  amounts  of  alumina.  According  to  their  class 
they  may  also  contain  more  or  less  iron  oxides,  lime,  magnesia, 
potash,  and  soda.  They  all  contain  iron  in  some  form,  though  in 
greatly  varying  amounts. 

Prof.  F.  W.  Clarke1  has  published  the  following  analysis  as 
representing  the  average  composition  of  the  igneous  rocks.  It  is 
based  upon  several  thousand  complete  and  partial  analyses,  made 
in  the  laboratory  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  and 
covering  igneous  rocks  of  widely  different  type  and  locality. 

AVERAGE  COMPOSITION  OF  IGNEOUS  ROCKS 


Silica 

59.93  percen. 

Barium  oxide 

0.11  percent 

Alumina 

14.97 

Fluorine 

0.10 

Ferrous  oxide 

3.42 

Manganese  oxide 

0.10 

Ferric  oxide 

2.58 

Chlorine 

0.06 

Lime 

4.78 

Chromium  oxide 

0.05 

Magnesia 

3.85 

Strontium  oxide 

0.04 

Soda 

3.40 

Zirconium  oxide 

0.03 

Potash 

2.99 

Nickel  oxide 

0.03 

Water 

1.94 

Vanadium  oxide 

0.02 

Titanium  oxide 

0.74 

Lithium  oxide 

0.01 

(^       U          A'        'A 

OAQ 

v^aroon  dioxide 
Phosphorus  pentoxide 

.  4:0 

0.26 

100.00 

Sulphur 

0.11 

Inspection  of  the  preceding  table  will  show  that  the  two  iron 
oxides  together  make  up  exactly  6  percent  of  the  total  mass  of 
igneous  rocks.  This  is  equivalent  to  4.47  percent  of  metallic 
iron. 

As  to  the  form  in  which  the  iron  occurs  in  these  igneous  rocks, 
it  may  be  said  that  though  it  is  present  occasionally  in  the  actual 
form  of  one  of  the  iron-oxide  minerals  (magnetite,  hematite) ,  or  as 
iron  sulphide,  it  is  present  far  more  commonly  as  an  iron  silicate 
mineral,  or  as  one  constituent  of  a  more  complex  silicate. 

1  Bulletin  491,  U.  S.  -Geol.  Survey,  p.  27. 


GEOLOGIC  AND  CHEMICAL  RELA  TIONS  OF  IRON    17 

Sedimentary  Rocks. — The  sedimentary  rocks  are  those  derived 
from  the  decay  of  pre-existing  strata,  the  material  so  obtained  be- 
ing carried  by  water  in  suspension  or  solution  to  some  point 
where  it  is  re-deposited  as  a  bed  of  sand,  clay  or  limestone.  Sub- 
sequently this  loosely  deposited  material  may  become  consoli- 
dated and  hardened  by  pressure  or  other  agencies,  the  result  be- 
ing the  formation  of  sandstones,  shales  or  slates  from  the  original 
beds  of  sand  and  clay. 

A  convenient  working  classification  of  the  sedimentary  rocks, 
satisfactory  enough  for  our  present  purposes,  is  that  following. 
It  will  be  seen  that  these  rocks  can  be  divided  into  three  fairly 
distinct  groups,  the  basis  for  the  division,  as  given  below,  being 
partly  chemical  and  partly  physical.  In  later  analyses  the  sharp- 
ness of  the  chemical  distinctions  between  the  groups  will  be  more 
strikingly  illustrated. 

(1)  Siliceous  sediments;  composed  of  grains  or  pebbles,  usually 
of  quartz — sandstones,  conglomerates. 

(2)  Argillaceous  sediments;  composed  of  clayey  materials — 
shales,  slates. 

(3)  Calcareous   sediments;    composed   largely    or   entirely    of 
carbonate  of  lime,  with  or  without  carbonate  of  magnesia — 
limestones,  dolomites,  marbles. 

It  may  here  be  noted  that  the  geologist,  in  speaking  of  rocks, 
includes  not  only  the  hard  materials  commonly  known  by  that 
name  but  also  the  soft,  unconsolidated  phases  of  these  same 
materials,  i.e.,  sands,  gravels,  clays,  marls,  etc.  This  introduces 
across  classification,  based  on  the  degree  of  consolidation  of  the 
material,  as  indicated  in  the  little  table  following : 


Kind  of  rock 

Degree  of  consolidation 

Entirely   uncon- 
solidated 

Normally  consolidated 

Metamorphose  d, 
extremely  consoli- 
dated 

Siliceous  rocks  .  .  . 
Argillaceous  rocks 
Calcareous  rocks  . 

Sand,     gravel 
Clays  
Marls  

Sandstones,  conglomerates 
Shales  
Limestones  

Quartzites 
Slates,    schists 
Marbles 

With  the  exception  of  a  few  relatively  unimportant  instances 
where  ice  or  wind  have  played  some  part  in  the  deposition  of  rocks, 
all  of  the  sedimentary  rocks  have  been  deposited  in  bodies  of 
water.  In  most  cases  water  has  been  both  the  transporting 
and  the  depositing  agent,  but  chemical  and  organic  agencies 


18 


IRON  ORES 


have  in  many  instances  affected  the  result.  The  most  char- 
acteristic feature  about  sedimentary  rocks,  as  distinguished  from 
igneous  rocks,  is  the  fact  that  the  sediments  are  almost  invariably 
divided  into  beds  or  layers.  This  characteristic  feature  arises 
from  the  fact  that  sedimentation  is  never  absolutely  continuous 
and  uniform.  Variations  in  the  water  level,  in  the  direction  of 
currents,  or  in  composition  of  the  particles  of  material  carried  by 
the  water  in  suspension — all  of  these  have  an  influence  in  this 
matter.  Even  slight  changes  in  the  composition  of  the  deposit 
are  apt  to  be  reflected  by  differences  of  color,  texture,  etc., 
which  suffice  to  mark  out  the  bedding  planes  of  the  resulting 
rock. 

The  following  table,  also  quoted  from  F.  W.  Clarke,1  shows  the 
extent  to  which  iron  has  become  distributed  throughout  the  mass 
of  the  normal  sedimentary  rocks.  In  these  rocks  the  iron  is 
usually  present  as  carbonate,  sulphide  or  oxide;  though  iron 
silicates  also  occur  in  some  of  the  sediments. 

AVERAGE  COMPOSITION  OF  SEDIMENTARY  ROCKS  (F.  W.  CLARKE) 


Shales 

Sandstones 

Limestones 

Silica..      .      .                     * 

58  10 

78  33 

5  19 

Alumina 

15  40 

4  77 

0  81 

Ferric  oxide  
Ferrous  oxide. 

4.02 
2  45 

1.07 
0  30 

0.54 

Lime  

3.11 

5.50 

42.57 

Magnesia  
Soda.              .      .  . 

2.44 
1  30 

1.16 
0  45 

7.89 
0  05 

Potash 

3  24 

1  31 

0  33 

Water  

5.00 

1  63 

0  77 

Carbon  dioxide 

2  63 

5  03 

41  54 

Titanium  oxide 

0  65 

0  25 

0  06 

Phosphorus  pentoxide  
Sulphur  
Sulphur  trioxide 

0.17 
0  64 

0.08 
0  07 

0.04 
0.09 
0  05 

Barium  oxide 

0  05 

0  05 

Manganese  oxide  

0  05 

Chlorine  





0.02 

Structure  of  Rock  Masses. — If  rocks,  either  igneous  or  sedi- 
mentary, were  unchanged  in  composition  or  attitude  from  the 
condition  in  which  they  were  originally  formed,  there  would 
have  been  little  opportunity  for  rearrangement  and  concentra- 

1  Bulletin  491,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  p.  32. 


GEOLOGIC  AND  CHEMICAL  RELA  TIONS  OF  IRON    19 

tion  of  their  mineral  contents ;  and  under  such  conditions  very  few 
of  our  existing  iron- ore  deposits  would  ever  have  been  formed.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  however,  great  changes  in  these  regards  have 
been  experienced  by  most  of  the  rocks  now  exposed  in  the  earth's 
crust  as  the  result  of  long-continued  heat  and  pressure,  aided 
by  earth  movements.  The  changes  in  attitude  and  structure 
have  been  effective  not  only  in  permitting  or  aiding  the  natural 
concentration  of  the  diffused  iron  into  ore  deposits,  but  in  ren- 
dering such  deposits  more  or  less  accessible  after  their  formation. 
Particular  instances  of  these  effects  will  be  found  in  the  discus- 
sions of  the  various  ore  districts,  in  later  chapters  of  this  work. 
Here  the  main  types  of  structural  change  may  be  briefly  noted  for 
convenience  in  further  reading. 

The  beds  of  sedimentary  rocks,  having  been  formed  for  the 
most  part  by  deposition  on  the  gently  sloping  bottoms  of  bodies 
of  water,  would  naturally  have  a  horizontal  or  nearly  horizontal 
attitude  at  the  time  of  their  formation.  But  during  the  numerous 
elevations  and  depressions  of  the  land  which  have  occurred  since 
their  deposition,  this  original  horizontality  of  bedding  was  in 
many  cases  destroyed,  so  that  now  we  may  find  sedimentary 
rocks  whose  beds  are  inclined  at  all  angles  to  the  horizontal. 
This  is  particularly  true  in  the  Appalachian,  Lake  Superior, 
Rocky  Mountain,  and  Pacific  Coast  regions,  where  horizontal 
strata  are  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule.  In  the  central 
United  States,  however,  most  of  the  rocks  still  lie  almost  or  quite 
horizontal,  an  inclination  of  over  five  degrees  being  distinctly  un- 
common in  the  States  of  the  Mississippi  basin. 

In  the  course  of  earth  movements,  folds  and  flexures  of  various 
types  are  developed  in  beds  of  rock  which  may  previously  have 
been  horizontal.  If  the  movement  simply  elevates  or  depresses 
one  side  of  an  area,  so  that  as  a  result  the  rocks  everywhere  dip 
in  the  same  direction,  the  resulting  attitude  of  the  rocks  is  called 
a  monocline.  If,  however,  compressive  or  tensile  stresses  accom- 
pany the  uplift  or  depression,  a  complete  fold  of  some  sort  will  be 
formed. 

When  a  complete  fold  is  presented  for  observation,  it  may  be 
either  a  syndine  or  trough,  in  which  the  strata  on  both  sides  dip 
toward  the  axis  of  the  fold;  or  an  anticline  or  arch,  in  which  the 
strata  on  both  sides  dip  away  from  the  axis. 

When,  in  the  course  of  earth  movements,  the  strata  subjected 


20  IRON  ORES 

to  stress  are  too  rigid  to  yield  by  folding,  or  when  the  stress  is 
applied  too  rapidly,  they  will  yield  by  fracture.  Such  fractures 
result  in  the  formation  of  a  fault,  which  may  be  considered 
simply  as  a  break  in  the  strata  accompanied  by  elevation  or 
depression  of  the  beds  on  one  side  of  the  fault  plane.  On  a  large 
or  small  scale,  faulting  is  a  very  common  phenomenon,  particu- 
larly in  regions  of  intense  folding.  It  is  a  matter  of  peculiar 
importance  to  the  mining  engineer,  since  the  existence  of  faults 
in  a  district  complicates  the  underground  structure,  and  renders 
it  difficult  to  follow  out  a  mineral  deposit  affected  by  faulting. 

So  far  the  structural  features,  such  as  folds  and  faults,  have 
been  considered  purely  as  physical  phenomena,  but  were  this 
their  only  interest  it  would  not  have  been  necessary  to  refer  to 
them  in  this  chapter.  Their  importance  in  the  present  con- 
nection arises  from  the  facts  that  these  structural  factors  have 
in  many  instances  had  a  direct  effect  upon  the  occurrence,  the 
form,  or  the  commercial  availability  of  iron-ore  deposits,  as  will 
be  seen  later  during  discussion  of  actual  deposits  of  various  types. 
In  this  work  they  have  been  aided  by  certain  chemical  properties 
of  the  iron  compounds,  which  may  now  be  briefly  noted. 

The  Two  Series  of  Iron  Compounds. — The  extent  and  im- 
portance of  workable  deposits  of  iron  ore  is  not  due  entirely  to 
the  fact  that  the  element  iron  is  both  abundant  and  widely  dis- 
tributed in  the  rocks  of  the  earth's  crust.  If  those  were  the  only 
factors  in  the  case  we  could  reasonably  expect  to  find  that 
aluminum  ores  were  more  common  than  iron  ores,  for  alumina 
makes  up  about  15  percent  of  the  crustal  rocks  as  compared 
with  the  6  percent  of  iron  oxide.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
aluminum  ores  are  very  scarce  as  compared  with  iron  ores. 

Much  of  the  extent  of  our  iron  deposits  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  this  element  forms  two  series  of  compounds,  that  these 
series  are  interchangeable  under  certain  conditions,  and  that 
they  have  very  different  chemical  and  physical  properties. 
The  two  series  are  known  as  ferrous  and  ferric  compounds 
respectively. 

Ferrous  oxide  is  composed  of  one  atom  of  oxygen  united  to  one 
atom  of  iron,  and  its  chemical  formula  is  therefore  FeO.  When 
combined  with  other  elements,  ferrous  oxide  yields  a  long  series 
of  ferrous  compounds.  Of  these,  the  most  important  from  our 
present  viewpoint  are  ferrous  carbonate  (FeCO3),  ferrous  di- 


GEOLOGIC  AND  CHEMICAL  RELA  TIONS  OF  IRON   21 

sulphide  (FeS2),  ferrous  sulphate  (FeS04)  and  the  various  ferrous 
silicates.  The  ferrous  compounds  agree  in  being  relatively 
unstable  and  usually  soluble  in  natural  waters. 

Ferric  oxide  is  composed  of  two  atoms  of  iron  united  with  three 
atoms  of  oxygen,  and  its  chemical  formula  is  therefore  Fe20s. 
None  of  the  other  ferric  compounds  are  of  great  importance  in 
the  present  connection.  Ferric  oxde  is  relatively  stable,  and 
practically  insoluble  in  ordinary  surface  waters. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  IRON  MINERALS  AND  THEIR  RELATIONSHIPS 

In  discussing  the  geologic  relations  of  iron  it  was  noted  that 
the  metallic  iron  used  in  the  world  is  not  derived  from  such  widely 
diffused  sources  as  ordinary  rocks,  but  from  certain  minerals 
particularly  rich  in  iron;  and  it  was  also  noted  that  only  a  few 
such  minerals  were  commercially  used.  Before  taking  up  the 
formation  of  iron-ore  deposits,  it  will  be  well  to  consider  the 
minerals  which  are  of  most  importance  in  this  connection.' 

A  vast  number  of  mineral  species  exist  which  contain  more  or 
less  iron;  but  in  most  cases  either  the  iron  percentage  is  too 
small  for  industrial  use,  or  else  the  mineral  itself  is  too  rare  to 
be  used  as  an  ore.  For  example,  natural  metallic  iron,  or 
11  native  iron"  does  occur  as  a  mineral,  but  it  is  so  scarce  and  un- 
important as  not  to  require  more  than  mention  here  as  a  mineral- 
ogical  curiosity.  If  at  any  time  large  deposits  of  it  were  struck, 
it  would  be  a  valuable  ore  because  of  its  purity.  On  the  other 
hand,  many  of  the  iron  silicate  minerals  occur  in  vast  quantities, 
and  are  therefore  available  enough  so  far  as  tonnage  is  concerned, 
but  their  percentage  of  iron  is  so  low  compared  with  their 
silica  content  that  they  are  at  present  unavailable  for  use  as 
ores.  So  far  as  the  commercial  manufacture  of  iron  is  concerned, 
therefore,  attention  can  be  concentrated  on  a  surprisingly  small 
number  of  economically  available  iron-bearing  minerals. 

The  Grouping  of  the  Iron  Minerals. — The  principal  iron- 
bearing  minerals  which  are  now  used  as  ores  of  that  metal  fall, 
when  considered  from  the  chemical  point  of  view,  into  two  classes 
— oxides  and  carbonates.  Of  these  two  groups,  the  oxides  are 
by  far  the  more  important  industrially.  In  addition,  some  con- 
sideration must  be  given  to  two  other  groups — the  iron  silicates 
and  the  iron  sulphides.  Silicate  ores  are  now  used  at  one  or  two 
European  smelting  centers,  and  under  certain  conditions  may 
ultimately  come  into  limited  use  elsewhere.  Iron  sulphides, 
though  not  serviceable  as  ores  naturally,  are  of  indirect  interest 
and  importance  as  sources  of  iron  both  in  manufacturing  processes 

and  in  nature. 

22 


IRON  MINERALS  AND  THEIR  RELA  TION SHIPS   23 

The  groups  of  industrially  important  iron  minerals  noted 
above  may  be  taken  up  in  some  detail,  but  it  seems  advisable  to 
re-arrange  the  grouping  somewhat  in  order  to  give  proper  weight 
to  the  relative  importance  of  the  iron  oxide  group.  This  is  readily 
separable  into  three  sub-groups,  which  are  defined  not  only  by 
their  chemical  characteristics  but  by  differences  in  their  industrial 
value,  and  by  great  differences  in  the  origin  and  associations  of 
the  deposits  in  which  they  occur.  These  sub-groups,  with  the 
other  main  groups,  have  been  noted  in  the  following  table,  which 
summarizes  the  classification  which  will  be  used  in  the  present 
chapter : 

CHIEF  IRON  MINERALS 

A.  Iron  oxides: 

Ferro-ferric  oxides.  1.  Magnetite  group. 
Ferric  oxides : 

Anhydrous.  2.  Hematite  group. 

Hydrous.  3.  Brown  ore  group. 

B.  Iron  carbonates.  4.  Carbonate  group. 

C.  Iron  silicates.  5.  Silicate  group. 

D.  Iron  sulphides.  6.  Sulphide  group. 

Each  of  these  groups  can  now  be  discussed,  in  the  order  in 
which  they  are  named  in  the  preceding  summary. 

1.  Magnetite  Group. — The  typical  member  of  this  group  is  the 
mineral  magnetite,  though  several  closely  related  species  are  of 
some  economic  interest  Magnetite  has  for  its  chemical  formula 
Fe3O4,  corresponding  to  the  composition  metallic  iron  72.4  per- 
cent oxygen,  27.6  percent.  Pure  magnetite  is  therefore  the 
richest  known  ore  of  iron.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  part  of 
its  iron  is  in  the  ferrous  state,  and  requires  less  oxygen  to  balance 
it  than  does  the  iron  of  the  pure  ferric  oxides. 

The  constitution  of  the  magnetic  or  ferro-ferric  oxide  can  per- 
haps be  most  clearly  understood  if  it  be  taken  as  an  equal 
molecular  mixture  of  ferrous  oxide  and  ferric  oxide,  as  in  the 
following  equation: 

Fes04  =  FeO  +  F203 

Magnetic      Ferrous         Ferric 
oxide  oxide  oxide 

If  we  were  at  present  dealing  with  the  origin  of  the  magnetic  ores, 
it  would  be  desirable  to  go  further  into  this  matter,  for  the  above 
equation  does  not  fully  represent  all  the  facts  in  the  case,  but  it 
will  be  sufficiently  precise  for  all  our  present  purposes. 


24  IRON  ORES 

Magnetite  occurs  most  commonly  as  a  massive  mineral,  steel- 
gray  to  black  in  color,  and  with  a  specific  gravity  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  5.0.  Deposits  of  magnetite  are  almost  invariably  found 
in  close  association  with  igneous  or  highly  metamorphosed  rocks. 
When  associated  with  crystalline  limestones  or  with  the  acid 
igneous  rocks  the  ore  is  commonly  free  from  other  metals;  so 
that  simple  separation  from  the  country  rock  or  gangue  will  give 
a  satisfactory  product.  But  when  magnetite  occurs  associated 
with  basic  igneous  rocks,  it  is  apt  to  have  either  mixed  with  it 
physically,  or  combined  chemically,  oxides  of  chromium  or  ti- 
tanium. In  these  cases,  though  magnetic  separation  removes  all 
the  non-metallic  material,  the  product  will  still  carry  much  or  all 
of  the  metallic  impurities. 

All  of  the  magnetites  possess  magnetic  properties,  though  in 
very  variable  degree  and  intensity.  Occasionally,  as  in  the 
natural  lodestone  of  Arkansas  and  other  localities,  the  ore  is  so 
intensely  magnetic  as  to  attract  and  hold,  with  considerable 
strength,  small  iron  or  steel  articles  which  come  within  its  sphere 
of  action.  Ordinarily,  however,  a  magnetite  ore  will  not  act  so 
positively,  but  it  will  attract  the  compass  needle,  and  its  small 
grains  or  fragments  will  be  readily  attracted  by  other  magnets. 
This  property  is  put  to  two  industrial  uses.  The  effect  on  the 
compass  needle  aids  in  determining  the  presence,  and  to  some  ex- 
tent the  size  and  form,  of  magnetite  ore  bodies  below  the  ground 
surface;  and  has  been  developed  into  a  very  interesting  prospect- 
ing method,  for  ores  of  this  type.  The  attractability  of  the  ore, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  made  use  of  in  all  the  methods  of  magnetic 
concentration  which  will  be  referred  to  in  the  chapter  dealing 
with  concentrating  processes. 

2.  Hematite  Group. — The  mineral  hematite  is  composed  of 
ferric  oxide,  its  chemical  formula  being  Fe2O3,  corresponding  to  a 
composition  metallic  iron  70  per  cent,  and  oxygen  30  per  cent.  It 
differs  from  magnetite  in  not  containing  any  ferrous  iron,  and 
from  the  brown  ores  next  to  be  discussed  in  being  entirely  anhy- 
drous or  free  from  combined  water. 

Hematite  is  by  far  the  most  important  ore  of  iron  on  all  the 
continents,  and  occurs  in  many  varieties  of  form,  richness  and 
geologic  association.  According  to  the  characteristics  of  the 
particular  variety  in  hand  it  may  be  termed  red  hematite,  spec- 
ular hematite,  oolitic  hematite,  fossil  ore,  etc.  The  hard,  metallic 


IRON  MINERALS  AND  THEIR  RELATIONSHIPS    25 


or  specular  varieties  are  usually  found,  like  magnetite,  associated 
with  either  igneous  rocks  or  with  very  highly  metamorphosed 
sediments.  The  red  or  fossil  ores  of  Canada  and  the  eastern 
United  States,  however,  are  associated  with  normal  sedimentary 
rocks. 

3.  Limonite  or  Brown  Ore  Group. — The  iron  minerals  here 
grouped  together  as  brown  ores  are  all  hydrous  ferric  oxides. 
They  agree  with  hematite  in  the  fact  that  their  iron  is  in  the  ferric 
form,  but  differ  because  the  brown  ores  all  contain  more  or  less 
chemically  combined  water,  while  pure  hematite  is  entirely 
anhydrous. 

Among  themselves,  the  different  minerals  here  grouped  as 
brown  ores  differ  in  the  amount  of  the  water  which  is  chemically 
combined  with  their  iron  oxide.  With  regard  to  this  factor,  the 
different  brown  ores  make  up  a  perfect  series,  ranging  from  an  al- 
most anhydrous  ore  to  one  containing  over  25  percent  of  combined 
water.  The  minerals  which  make  up  this  series  have  been  given 
the  names  turgite,  goethite,  limonite,  xanthosiderite  and  limnite, 
in  the  order  of  their  progressive  increase  in  water  content. 

The  relation  between  these  various  iron  oxide  minerals  is  best 
brought  out  if  the  formulas  be  rewritten  so  as  to  give  a  constant 
iron  factor.  This  has  accordingly  been  done  in  the  table  below. 


Name  of  mineral 

Chemical  formula 

Composition 

Iron    oxide 

Water 

Hematite  
Turgite  
Goethite  
Limonite  
Xanthosiderite  
Limnite 

2  Fe2O3,  0  H2O 
2  Fe2O3,  1  H2O 
2  Fe2O3,  2  H2O 
2  Fe2O3,  3  H2O 
2  Fe2O3,  4  H2O 
2  Fe2O3,  6  H2O 

100      percent 
94  .  7  percent 
89  .  9  percent 
85  .  5  percent 
81.6  percent 
74  .  7  percent 

0      percent 
5  .  3  percent 
10  .  1  percent 
14  .  5  percent 
18.4  percent 
25  .  3  percent 

From  this  table  it  will  be  seen  that  the  six  minerals  in  question 
make  up  a  perfect  series  with  respect  to  their  percentages  of 
combined  water,  beginning  with  the  anhydrous  oxide  hematite 
and  showing  gradually  increased  hydration  to  limnite  at  the  other 
end  of  the  series. 

In  the  above  table  the  anhydrous  ore — hematite  proper — has 
been  included  in  order  to  complete  the  comparison.  In  ordinary 
usage  the  five  hydrous  oxides  are  called  indiscriminately  brown 
ore,  brown  hematite  or  limonite.  There  is  no  possible  objection 


26  IRON  ORES 

to  the  use  of  either  of  the  first  two  of  these  terms,  but  to  extend 
the  use  of  the  term  limonite  to  cover  the  entire  group,  when  it 
properly  applies  only  to  one  mineral  of  that  group,  is  simply  to 
invite  confusion.  In  the  present  volume  the  term  limonite  will 
be  used,  when  at  all,  in  its  proper  and  restricted  sense,  referring 
to  the  mineral  with  the  formula  2Fe2O3;  3H20.  When,  on  the 
other  hand,  hydrous  iron  oxides  in  general  are  referred  to,  they 
will  be  called  brown  iron  ores  or  simply  brown  ores. 

4.  Iron  Carbonate  Group. — The  mineral  called  siderite  or  iron 
carbonate  has  the  formula  FeC03,  which  is  equivalent  to  about 
48,3  percent  metallic  iron.     Part  of  the  iron,  however,  is  often 
replaced  by  other  basic  elements,   so  that  in  nature  we  find 
several  closely  graded  series  of  minerals  from    the   pure   iron 
carbonate,  through  iron-lime  carbonates,   iron-manganese  car- 
bonates  or   iron-magnesia   carbonates,   to   the   other   extremes 
where  the  lime,  magnesia  or  manganese  predominates  or  the  iron 
is  entirely  absent. 

The  present  chief  interest  of  this  complex  group  of  carbonates 
arises  from  the  fact  that  in  many  cases  the  formation  of  a  de- 
posit of  iron  carbonate  was  the  first  or  an  important  stage  in  the 
origin  of  a  deposit  of  brown  ore.  Iron  carbonate  itself  is  not  at 
at  present  an  important  ore  for  the  American  iron  industry, 
though  it  is  still  the  source  of  supply  for  one  of  the  leading 
English  iron-making  districts. 

5.  The  Iron  Silicate  Group. — A  very  large  number  of  silicate 
minerals  contain  iron,  in  greater  or  lesser  percentages.     Under 
ordinary  conditions,  however,  the  iron  content  is  not  sufficiently 
high  to  repay  smelting,  because  of  the  large  percentage  of  silica 
which  must  be  fluxed.     A  few  of  these  iron  silicates,  however, 
are  of  sufficient  interest  to  merit  a  brief  note.     In  central  Bohemia 
and  Thuringia,  for  example,  two  iron  silicates — chamosite  and 
thuringite — have  been  worked  as  commercial  ores,  while  the  pres- 
ent writer  has  run  some  experimental  pig-metal  from  another 
silicate  — glauconite — in  the   course  of  developing  a  potash  re- 
covery process.     Analyses  of  the  three  silicates  which  have  been 
mentioned  are  as  follows,  those  of    chamosite  and  thuringite 
being  quoted  from  Beck. 

It  will  be. noted  that  all  three  of  these  silicate  ores  are  alumin- 
ous and  hydrated.  It  might  further  be  said,  though  not  shown 
by  the  analyses  above,  that  all  of  them  are  high  in  phosphorus. 


IRON  MINERALS  AND  THEIR  RELATIONSHIPS    27 


Thuringite 

Chamosite 

Glauconite 

22.61 

18.63 

46.03 

16.80 

8.48 

7.86 

33.10 

45.13) 

25.23 

15.43 

3.73  J 

10.60 

6.44 

8.40 

ANALYSES  OF  IRON  SILICATES  USED  AS  ORES 

Silica 
Alumina 
Ferrous  oxide 
Ferric  oxide 
Combined  water 

Except  under  special  conditions,  it  is  of  course  obvious  that  they 
are  of  no  serious  commercial  importance. 

6.  The  Iron  Sulphide  Group. — Two  different  sulphides  of  iron 
occur  as  natural  minerals.     These  are  respectively: 

a.  Pyrite  =  iron   disulphide  =  iron   46.7   percent,    sulphur 
53.3  percent. 

b.  Pyrrhotite  =  iron  sulphide  =  iron  60.5  percent,  sulphur 
39.5  percent. 

Of  these  two  sulphides  of  iron,  pyrite  is  the  commoner,  but  both 
occur  in  large  deposits  and  both  are  of  importance  in  the  present 
connection.  Owing  to  the  large  sulphur  content,  neither  of  the 
iron  sulphides  is  ever  worked  primarily  as  a  source  of  iron,  being 
regarded  rather  as  ores  of  sulphur.  But  when  the  sulphur  has 
been  driven  off  by  roasting,  the  residual  material  is  an  iron  oxide; 
and  this  residuum,  known  as  blue  billy,  is  occasionally  utilized 
as  an  iron  ore.  Long  weathering  has  a  similar  result,  a  "  gossan" 
of  brown  ore  being  thus  formed  naturally  along  the  weathered 
outcrop  of  pyrite  deposits. 

SUMMARY  OF  COMPOSITION  OF  PRINCIPAL  IRON  MINERALS 


Name 

Composition 

Chemical 
formula 

Metal- 
lic iron 
(Fe) 

Sulphur 
(S) 

Carbon 
dioxide 
(COi) 

Oxygen 
(0) 

Water 
(H»0) 

Magnetite     

Fe,04 

72.4 

27.6 

Hematite  
Turgite  . 

Fe2O3 
2  Fe2O3,  H2O 
Fe2O3,  H2O 
2Fe2O3,3H2O 
Fe2O3,  2H2O 
Fe2O3,  3H2O 

70.0 
66.2 
62.9 
59.8 
57.1 
52.3 





30.0 
28.5 
27.0 
25.7 
24.5 
22.4 

5.3 
10.1 
14.5 
18.4 
25.3 

Goethite. 

Limonite  





Xanthosiderite 

Limnite 

Siderite  .  .  . 

FeC03 

48.2 

37.9 

13.9 

Pyrrhotite 

FeS 
FeS2 

60.5 
46.7 

39.5 
53.3 

Pyrite 

28 


IRON  ORES 


It  will  be  seen  later  that  the  iron  sulphides  are  of  peculiar 
interest  in  a  study  of  the  origin  of  brown  orq  deposits,  and  that 
both  directly  and  indirectly  they  have  contributed  to  the 
formation  of  many  of  these  deposits. 

BROWN   ORES 


•  Me  fa  We  Iron       ij&Carbon  Dioxide      f -f  Combined  Wafer 

\0xygen  kj^St/fphur 

FIG.  2. — Chemical  composition  of  the  iron -ore  minerals. 
Chemical  Relationships  of  the  Iron  Minerals. — The  facts   as 
to  the  chemical  composition  of  the  various  iron-bearing  minerals 
which   have  been  noted  in  preceding  paragraphs  can  best   be 
comprehended  when  summarized  as  in  the  table  on  page  27. 


IRON  MINERALS  AND  THEIR  RELATION  SHIPS    29 

Even  a  casual  inspection  of  the  preceding  table  will  suffice  to 
prove  that  the  iron  ores  form  a  group  which  shows  little  com- 
plexity of  composition.  All  of  the  important  iron-bearing  min- 
erals are  simple  compunds  of  iron  with  oxygen,  sulphur,  carbon 
dioxide  and  water  respectively.  Iron  itself,  as  has  been  pointed 
out  in  an  earlier  section  of  this  chapter,  is  one  of  the  most  abun- 
dant of  the  elements;  and  the  other  constituents  which  we  now 
find  united  with  iron  to  form  the  commercial  iron  ores  are  also 
extremely  abundant. 

These  facts  immediately  become  suggestive  when  looked  at 
from  another  viewpoint.  In  considering  the  natural  processes 
now  in  action  on  the  earth  it  is  obvious  that  the  growth  and  decay 
of  organisms,  the  chemical  and  physical  action  of  surface  and 
underground  waters,  and  the  resultant  weathering  and  decom- 
position of  minerals  and  rocks  are  widespread  in  their  scope,  con- 
tinuous in  their  action,  and  powerful  in  their  cumulative  effects. 
Now,  among  these  powerful  agencies,  there  are  available  different 
forces  which  may  make  an  iron  mineral  soluble  or  may  cause  its 
precipitation;  which  may  leach  off  its  sulphur  or  remove  its  car- 
bon dioxide;  which  may  decrease  or  increase  its  percentage  of 
oxygen  or  of  water.  The  chemical  elements  involved  in  the 
transformations  are  few  in  number  and  very  common;  the  forces 
involved  are  simple,  but  constant  in  their  activity;  while  the  time 
available  has  been  sufficient  to  permit  the  production  of  remark- 
able total  effects. 

Relative  Productive  Importance  of  the  Different  Ores. — De- 
tailed statistics  on  the  production  of  the  various  types  of  iron  ore 
in  the  different  states  will  be  presented  in  a  later  chapter  of  this 
volume.  In  the  present  place  it  is  sufficient  to  introduce  the 
following  table,  which  covers  the  production  of  the  various 
types  in  the  United  States  in  1880  and  in  the  years  1889  to  1912 
inclusive. 

Of  the  data  used  in  the  above  table,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
figures  for  1880  are  those  reported  by  the  Tenth  Census,  reduced 
to  long  tons.  The  figures  for  1889  and  later  years  are  taken  from 
the  volume  Mineral  Resources  of  the  United  States  published 
annually  by  the  United  States  Geological  Survey. 

It  will  be  seen  on  examination  of  this  table  that  in  1912  the 
hematite  ores  accounted  for  practically  90  percent  of  the  total 
American  output;  while  the  brown  ores  and  magnetites  contrib- 


30 


IRON  ORES 


uted  each  about  5  percent  of  the  total, 
duction  was  a  negligible  percentage. 


The  carbonate  pro- 


PRODUCTION  OF  KINDS  OF  IRON  ORE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES,  1880-1912, 

IN  LONG  TONS 


Year 

Hematite 

Brown  ore 

Magnetite 

Carbonate 

Total 

1880  

2,243,993 

1,918,622 

2,134,276 

823,471 

7,120  362 

1889  
1890  
1891  
1892 

9,056,288 
10,527,650 
9,327,398 
11,646,619 

2,523,087 
2,559,938 
2,757,564 
2,485,101 

2,506,415 
2,570,838 
2,317,108 
,971,965 

432,251 
377,617 
189,108 
192,981 

14,518,041 
16,036,043 
14,591,178 
16  296  666 

1893  
1894  
1895  
1896 

8,272,637 
9,347,434 
12,513,995 

12,576,288 

1,849,272 
1,472,748 
2,102,358 
2,126,212 

,330,886 
972,219 

,268,222 
,211,526 

134,834 
87,278 
73,039 
91  423 

11,587,629 
11,879,679 
15,957,614 
16  005  449 

1897  

14,413,318 

1,961,954 

,059,479 

83,295 

17  518  046 

1898  
1899 

16,150,684 
20,004,399 

1,989,681 
2,869,785 

1,237,978 
1  727  430 

55,373 
81  559 

19,433,716 
24  683  173 

1900  

22,708,274 

3,231,089 

,537,551 

76,247 

27  553  161 

1901  
1902  . 

24,006,025 
30,532,149 

3,016,715 
3,305,484 

,813,076 
688  860 

51,663 

27  642 

28,887,479 
35  554  135 

1903  
1904  
1905  
1906 

30,328,654 
23,839,477 
37,567,055 
42,481,375 

3,080,399 
2,146,795 
2,546,662 
2  781  063 

,575,422 
,638,846 
2,390,417 
2  469  294 

34,833 
19,212 
21,999 
17  996 

35,019,308 
27,644,330 
42,526,133 

47  749  728 

1907  
1908  

46,060,486 
31,788,564 

2,957,477 
2,620  390 

2,679,067 
1  547  797 

23,589 
26  585 

51,720,619 
35  983  336 

1909  
1910  
1911  
1912 

46,208,640 
51,367,007 
39,626,224 
51,345,782 

2,839,265 
2,993,744 
2,032,094 
1  614  486 

2,229,839 
2,631,835 
2,202,527 
2  179  533 

16,527 
22,320 
15,707 
10  346 

51,294,271 
57,014,906 
43,876,552 
xx  i  xf)  147 

CHAPTER  IV 
THE  FORMATION  OF  IRON  ORE  DEPOSITS 

In  the  present  chapter  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  present  the 
more  important  facts  relative  to  the  occurrence  of  deposits  of  iron 
ores,  and  to  discuss  briefly  the  various  theories  of  origin  which 
have  been  based  upon  the  observed  facts.  In  doing  this,  special 
attention  will  be  paid  to  such  phases  of  the  matter  as  have  direct 
bearing  on  the  examination  and  commercial  development  of  iron 
ore  deposits  of  the  types  which  are  of  serious  industrial  impor- 
tance. On  the  other  hand,  the  reader  will  fail  to  find  the 
usual  detailed  descriptions  of  the  formation  of  ore  deposits  of 
certain  types  which  yield  more  in  the  class-room  than  in  the 
furnace. 

As  a  lengthy  discussion  of  controverted  questions  would  ob- 
viously be  out  of  place  in  such  a  summary  as  can  be  presented 
here,  the  chapter  must  in  part  tend  to  become  merely  an  expres- 
sion of  the  writer's  personal  views  on  debatable  points.  But,  as 
against  this  disadvantage,  this  method  of  treatment  will  at  any 
rate  secure  consistency  throughout,  which  is  an  advantage  to  the 
reader;  and  if  the  writer's  statements  or  opinions  are  found  io 
differ  widely  in  some  cases  from  accepted  tradition,  they  have  at 
least  the  merit  of  being  based  on  a  rather  extensive  experience 
with  various  types  of  iron-ore  deposits. 

Definition  of  Ore  and  Ore-deposit. — An  ore  is  a  mineral,  or 
association  of  minerals,  from  which  a  metal  can  be  profitably  ex- 
tracted under  existing  technical  conditions. 

The  ore  may  be  a  single  mineral,  as  in  most  iron  deposits;  or  it 
may  be  a  mass  of  closely  associated  minerals.  It  must,  however, 
contain  metal  in  such  quantities  and  relations  that  there  are  no 
technical  difficulties  in  the  way  of  profitable  extraction  of  the 
metal.  For  example,,  a  mass  of  clay  containing  10  percent  of 
iron  oxide,  scattered  through  it  in  fragments,  may  very  well  be  a 
good  iron  ore;  but  a  mass  of  rock  containing  20  or  30  percent  of  an 
iron  silicate  mineral  would  be  commercially  and  technically  un- 
available as  an  ore  under  present  conditions.  It  can  be  seen  that 

31 


32  IRON  ORES 

with  the  advance  of  technical  knowledge,  with  the  increasing  im- 
provement of  technical  processes  and  appliances,  and  with  the 
growing  scarcity  of  the  higher  grade  ores  of  all  the  metals,  com- 
ing generations  are  likely  to  use  the  term  ore  in  a  broader  sense 
than  we  can  apply  it  at  present. 

For  our  present  purposes  it  will  be  convenient  and  sufficiently 
accurate  to  define  an  ore  deposit  as 

A  mass  of  ore,  or  ore-bearing  material,  large  enough  to  be 
considered  commercially  workable,  and  whose  grade,  either 
without  or  after  concentration,  will  repay  handling. 

All  of  the  qualifications  which  have  been  introduced  into  the 
preceding  definition  are  necessary,  particularly  in  the  case  of 
deposits  of  iron  ore.  In  the  case  of  most  brown-ore  deposits, 
for  example,  we  are  not  dealing  directly  with  a  mass  of  iron 
mineral,  but  with  a  body  of  clay  or  sand  containing  scattered 
grains  or  fragments  of  an  iron  mineral.  In  this  case  concentration 
is  a  very  essential  element  in  the  problem. 

The  restrictions  as  to  size  and  grade  are  equally  necessary. 
It  would  be  foolish  to  insist  on  applying  the  term  ore  deposit  to 
an  isolated  mass,  a  few  pounds  or  tons  in  weight,  even  of  a  high- 
grade  ore.  On  the  other  hand,  it  would  be  equally  unjustifiable 
to  apply  the  term  to  a  large  body  of  material,  like  the  Alabama 
Clinton  "Big  Seam"  in  part  of  its  extent,  carrying  10  to  20  per- 
cent iron,  and  not  susceptible  of  commercial  use. 

Of  the  terms  which  are  frequently  used  to  describe  workable 
masses  of  iron  ore,  ore-deposit  is  by  far  the  most  serviceable  for 
general  descriptive  use,  for  it  carries  with  it  absolutely  no  im- 
plication as  to  the  size,  shape,  age,  grade  or  origin  of  the  mass 
to  which  it  may  be  applied.  The  term  ore-body  is  just  as  free 
from  implications  as  to  origin,  shape,  etc.,  but  it  is  not  ordinarily 
used  in  quite  so  general  fashion.  We  can,  for  example,  very 
properly  speak  in  a  perfectly  general  way  of  the  Clinton  ore- 
deposits,  or  the  Oriskany  ore-deposits;  but  we  would  hardly  speak 
of  Clinton  or  Oriskany  ore-bodies  except  in  reference  to  certain 
specific  masses. 

The  terms  bed  and  vein  are  of  much  more  limited  utility,  for 
when  properly  used  each  of  these  terms  carries  with  it  certain 
very  definite  implications  as  to  the  origin  and  usually  as  to  the 
general  shape  or  attitude  of  the  mass  of  ore  to  which  it  is  applied. 
In  colloquial  usage  this  distinction  is  often  lost  sight  of,  and  the 


THE  FORMATION  OF  IRON  ORE  DEPOSITS       33 

terms  are  used  interchangeably.  It  might  be  added  that,  in  the 
western  United  States  as  least,  this  confusion  in  meaning  has  in 
part  the  sanction  of  high  judicial  authority.  As  to  the  proper 
usage  of  the  terms  bed  and  vein,  reference  should  be  made  to  the 
sections  on  the  origin  of  iron  ores,  found  later  in  this  volume. 

In  some  parts  of  the  South,  the  term  ore-bank  is  applied  to  ore 
deposits,  more  particularly  to  deposits  of  brown  ore,  manganese 
ores  and  bauxite.  Properly,  it  can  be  applied  to  worked  de- 
posits of  the  type  in  which  those  ores  usually  occur,  but  it  has  no 
particular  general  value,  and  is  rarely,  if  ever,  applied  to  un- 
developed deposits. 

The  Practical  Bearing  of  Theories  of  Origin. — In  a  preceding 
paragraph  the  writer  has  suggested  that  in  his  opinion  the  study 
of  methods  of  origin  is  of  direct  practical  importance.  The  need 
for  such  a  declaration  of  faith  is  obvious  enough,  when  an  official 
report  by  an  exceptionally  able  geologist  can,  in  discussing 
certain  brown-ore  deposits,  summarize  another  view  in  the 
following  despairing  words:  "  Surf  ace  indications  are  thoroughly 
unreliable,  and  those  most  experienced  in  working  such  deposits 
are  practically  unanimous  in  the  opinion  that  no  deposit  can  be 
safely  estimated  until  every  ton  of  the  ore  has  been  mined." 

If  this  were  indeed  the  case  with  iron  deposits  in  general,  there 
would  be  little  reason  for  the  mining  engineer  to  pay  any  con- 
sideration to  the  possible  origin  of  the  ore  deposit  which  he  was 
developing,  for  a  theory  which  can  not  be  safely  used  as  a  basis 
for  practical  work  is  merely  an  interesting  toy.  In  the  writer's 
opinion,  however,  such  a  pessimistic  view  of  the  case  is  really 
not  justified  at  the  present  day,  and  he  feels  that,  even  in  the 
case  of  brown  ores,  "  those  most  experienced  in  working  such 
deposits"  are  not  quite  so  hopeless  as  the  quotation  might  imply. 
On  the  contrary,  it  should  be  most  clearly  and  thoroughly  under- 
stood that  unless  the  mode  of  origin  of  an  ore  deposit  is  fairly 
well  determined,  the  engineer  will  be  without  much  guidance 
either  in  carrying  on  intelligent  development  work,  in  estimating 
the  tonnage  contained  in  the  ore-body  or  in  prospecting 
intelligently  for  its  extension. 

This  statement  should  not  be  construed  as  implying  that  a 
correct  theory  of  origin  is  the  only  important  factor  in  making 
developments,  for  that  would  be  going  to  the  other  extreme.  In 
any  case  the  engineer  will  have  available  certain  observations 

3 


34  IRON  ORES 

and  records — of  natural  outcrops,  of  borings  and  of  test-pits, 
etc.,  and  unless  he  has  a  fair  idea  of  the  origin  and  geological 
associations  of  the  ore  deposit,  it  will  be  impossible  to  interpret 
the  observations  and  records  properly.  The  two  studies — of  the 
facts  of  occurrence  and  of  the  probable  mode  of  origin — should 
preferably  be  carried  on  simultaneously,  in  which  case  the 
conclusions  reached  can  be  checked  as  the  studies  progress. 

On  taking  up  the  study  of  iron-ore  deposition,  it  becomes 
apparent  almost  immediately  that  the  investigation  has  certain 
great  advantages  as  compared  with  the  study  of  other  ores;  while 
on  the  other  hand  it  presents  a  serious  complexity.  The  ad- 
vantages arise  from  the  facts  that  most  of  our  iron-ore  deposits 
are  of  comparatively  recent  origin;  that  they  have  usually  under- 
gone little  change  since  their  formation ;  and  that  practically  all  of 
the  processes  involved  in  the  formation  of  iron  ores  can  be  studied 
in  action  at  the  present  day.  As  against  these  advantages  is  to 
be  set  the  fact  that  in  studying  the  iron  ores  we  are  dealing 
with  common  mineral  forms  of  the  commonest  metal.  The  iron 
ores  therefore  present  a  greater  variety  of  origin  and  occurrence 
than  do  most  other  ores. 

It  must  be  admitted,  also,  that  in  addition  to  the  natural 
complexity  and  difficulties  of  the  subject,  added  terrors  are  in- 
troduced by  the  literature  which  has  grown  up  around  it.  These 
will  be  felt  by  anyone  who  attempts  to  acquaint  himself  with 
the  status  of  existing  knowledge  in  this  line,  and  are  due,  not  to 
the  scantiness  of  existing  literature  but  to  its  character.  On 
inquiry  the  engineer  will  find  that  there  are  vast  numbers  of  re- 
ports and  papers  dealing  with  the  occurrence  and  origin  of  iron 
ores.  But  these  papers  differ  remarkably  in  character  and  im- 
portance, and  to  one  taking  up  the  study  of  this  mass  of  material 
without  outside  guidance  the  result  would  be  confusion  rather 
than  enlightenment.  Unfortunately  the  bulk  of  a  paper,  the 
form  in  which  it  appears,  and  even  its  readability  give  little  aid 
in  determining  the  probable  soundness  of  the  author's  views. 

In  view  of  these  conditions,  it  has  seemed  desirable  in  the 
present  summary  to  re-state  the  facts  and  theories  bearing  on  the 
subject  in  logical  order,  even  though  many  of  the  facts  of  occur- 
rence are  well  known  to  all  engaged  in  iron  mining.  As  for  the 
theories  of  origin  which  are,  or  should  be,  based  upon  the  facts, 
no  attempt  has  been  made  to  discuss  or  even  name  all  that  have 


THE  FORMATION  OF  IRON  ORE  DEPOSITS        35 

at  various  times  been  advanced.  This  is  not  a  political  discus- 
sion, and  there  is  neither  time  nor  space  to  permit  indulgence  in 
the  pastime  of  calling  some  dead  theory  to  life  merely  for  the 
pleasure  of  killing  it  again. 

The  Principles  of  Classification. — Iron-ore  deposits  show  so 
many  variations  in  type  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  discuss  them 
intelligibly  unless  the  discussion  were  preceded  by  some  attempt 
at  systematic  grouping  or  classification.  In  preparing  such  a 
grouping  it  seems  best  to  base  it  chiefly  on  the  method  of  origin 
of  the  various  deposits,  for  this  basis  is  not  only  the  most  rational 
but  the  most  generally  serviceable  in  actual  practice.  The  only 
danger  is  that  it  may  be  carried  to  such  an  extreme  as  to  result 
in  hairsplitting  and  useless  distinctions,  or  that  it  will  be  based 
upon  criteria  which  can  not  be  definitely  determined  or  applied 
in  actual  practice. 

A  logical  classification  should  be  sufficiently  comprehensive 
that  it  will  afford  place  for  all  known  types  of  deposits;  and  its 
distinctions  should  be  so  clear  and  definite  as  not  to  permit  or 
cause  overlaps  in  the  groups.  If  the  classification  is  to  represent 
anything  more  than  a  verbal  exercise,  the  criteria  employed  in 
separating  the  groups  must  be  based  upon  differences  of  real  im- 
portance, and  not  upon  merely  trivial  distinctions.  If  these  three 
requirements  are  fulfilled,  the  classification  resulting  will  be 
scientific  as  well  as  merely  logical. 

If  we  could  stop  at  this  point,  the  matter  would  not  be  so  very 
difficult,  but  unfortunately  it  is  also  requisite  that  the  classifica- 
tion should  be  capable  of  being  put  to  some  practical  service. 
This  requirement  brings  into  view  the  real  difficulty  of  the 
problem,  and  explains  why  we  can  not  make  use  of  some  of  the 
very  obvious,  clean-cut  and  scientific  methods  of  grouping  which 
have  been  proposed.  If  the  criteria  employed  in  subdividing  the 
groups  are  of  such  a  character  that  they  can  not  be  readily  deter- 
mined and  applied  in  actual  practice,  the  classification  will  be 
useless,  no  matter  how  interesting  or  suggestive  it  may  otherwise 
be. 

On  reference  to  the  table  presented  on  page  9  it  may  be 
noted  that  iron  is  the  third  most  abundant  element  among  the 
constituents  of  the  earth's  crust,  and  that  the  two  iron  oxides  to- 
gether make  up  almost  exactly  6  percent  of  the  total.  With 
such  an  abundant  supply  of  iron,  in  various  forms,  distributed 


36  IRON  ORES 

widely  throughout  the  different  sedimentary  and  igneous  rocks, 
and  with  the  further  knowledge  that  iron-ore  deposits  usually 
occur  at  or  near  the  surface  of  the  earth,  in  a  zone  freely  traversed 
and  acted  upon  by  surface  and  sub-surface  waters,  it  is  obvious 
that  the  ultimate  source  of  the  iron  necessary  for  the  formation  of 
any  given  ore  deposit  will  usually  be  a  matter  of  little  interest  or 
importance.  It  will  in  most  cases  be  possible  to  prove  that  any 
one  of  half  a  dozen  different  rock  formations,  outcropping  within 
a  reasonable  distance — vertically  and  horizontally — of  the  ore 
deposit,  could  readily  have  furnished  all  of  the  iron  required.  In 
a  few  cases,  as  when  brown  ores  are  the  result  of  the  alteration 
of  nearby  pyrite  bodies,  the  ultimate  source  of  the  iron  will  be  of 
serious  interest.  But  in  by  far  the  majority  of  cases  it  can  be 
disregarded  as  possessing  neither  scientific  nor  practical  impor- 
tance. The  questions  which  do  count,  and  which  must  be  an- 
swered if  we  are  to  attempt  any  satisfactory  grouping  of  iron  ore 
deposits  are  two: 

1.  What  was  the  general  mode  in  which  the  deposits  originated? 

2.  What  were  the  factors  which  influenced  the  localization  of 
the  ores  in  their  present  geographic  and  geologic  position? 

The  Major  Groups. — As  a  starting-point  we  may  assume  that, 
since  igneous  rocks  always  contain  notable  percentages  of  iron  in 
one  form  or  another,  there  is  a  possibility  that  under  favorable 
conditions  such  a  concentration  of  iron  might  occur  at  some  point 
in  an  igneous  mass  as  to  form  a  workable  ore  deposit.  In  this 
case  we  would  have  to  deal  with  an  original  igneous  deposit,  con- 
temporaneous with  the  cooling  of  the  igneous  rock  itself.  At 
least  a  few  such  deposits  are  known  to  exist,  and  consequently  a 
place  for  deposits  of  this  type  must  be  made  in  any  working 
classification. 

In  by  far  the  majority  of  instances,  however,  the  iron-ore  de- 
posit has  a  much  less  direct  and  more  complicated  history.  De- 
posits of  direct  igneous  origin  make  up  certainly  less  that  5 
percent — and  possibly  less  than  1  percent — of  the  known  work- 
able iron-ore  deposits  of  the  world.  The  remaining  95  percent 
are  deposits  whose  iron  has  been  carried  in  by  water,  either  sur- 
face or  underground;  or,  in  far  rarer  cases,  by  gases. 

There  is  a  great  and  fundamental  division,  in  these  water- 
formed  and  gas-formed  ore  deposits,  beween  those  in  which  the 
iron  was  taken  up  by  surface  or  sub-surface  waters  from  ordinary 


THE  FORMATION  OF  IRON  ORE  DEPOSITS        37 

crustal  rocks  under  ordinary  temperature  conditions,  and  those 
in  which  the  iron  was  derived  from  heated  igneous  masses  and 
was  dissolved  and  possibly  re-deposited  under  abnormal  condi- 
tions as  to  temperature  and  pressure.  It  has  been  said  that 
this  division  is  fundamental  in  a  genetic  sense;  but  it  must  be 
added  that  it  is  unfortunately  not  available  for  use  as  a  major 
division  in  a  classification  intended  for  actual  use.  For  this 
reason  the  deposits  thought  to  be  due  indirectly  to  the  action  of 
heated  rock  masses  will  in  this  volume  be  discussed  merely  as  a 
subdivision  (contact  replacements)  under  the  general  class  of 
replacement  deposits. 

After  disposing  in  this  fashion  of  the  two  classes  of  iron-ore 
deposits  in  which  igneous  action  has  any  serious  part — the  original 
igneous  deposits  and  the  igneous  contact  replacements — we  find 
that  over  nine-tenths  of  the  ore  deposits  of  the  world,  so  far  as 
total  tonnage  is  concerned — are  still  to  be  reckoned  with.  All  of 
these  are  formed  by  deposition  from  surface  or  underground 
waters;  and  in  all  cases  the  iron  thus  deposited  was  taken  up 
from  pre-existing  rocks  under  ordinary  temperature  conditions. 
A  brief  summary  of  the  processes  involved  will  be  of  service  as  a 
guide  in  subdividing  this  enormous  mass  of  deposits  into  groups 
of  convenient  size  and  reasonable  uniformity. 

The  Removal  of  Iron  from  Crustal  Rocks. — A  relatively  small 
amount  of  the  iron  minerals  contained  in  rocks  is  freed  physic- 
ally, and  carried  off  in  suspension  by  running  water.  These 
suspended  materials  may  come  to  be  deposited  later  as  iron  sands. 
But  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  the  iron  transported  by  water  is 
carried  in  solution. 

The  iron  contained  in  various  forms  in  both  igneous  and  sedi- 
mentary rocks  is  set  free  chiefly  when  these  rocks  suffer  decay, 
though  part  of  the  iron  may  be  leached  out  by  percolating  waters 
and  removed  while  the  rocks  are  still  apparently  fresh  and  un- 
weathered.  Most  of  the  removal,  however,  is  accomplished  after 
the  chemical  and  physical  alteration  of  the  rock  has  progressed 
to  a  stage  where  the  originally  firm  mass  has  been  weathered  to 
a  porous  incoherent  condition.  It  is  then  easily  traversed  by 
surface  and  sub-surface  waters,  and  these  can  dissolve  the  iron 
and  carry  it  off  in  solution. 

When  the  rock  contains  its  iron  in  the  ferrous  form,  the  process 
needs  little  explanation,  for  ferrous  compounds  are  unstable  and 


38  IRON  ORES 

soluble.  When  the  iron  was  originally  present  as  a  ferric  com- 
pound, however,  which  would  be  practically  insoluble  in  pure 
waters,  the  process  of  removal  is  not  quite  so  immediately  obvious. 
In  this  case  it  is  assumed  that  much  of  the  solvent  effect  of  the 
water  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  carries  organic  acids,  derived  from 
its  passage  through  decaying  vegetable  matter  and  soil. 

The  Transfer  and  Re-deposition  of  Iron. — When  iron  has  once 
been  taken  into  solution  by  flowing  water,  its  final  destination 
depends  upon  the  course  taken  by  the  water.  So  long  as  the 
water  does  not  suffer  serious  change  in  its  velocity,  its  tempera- 
ture or  its  chemical  composition  the  iron  salts  will  be  carried  along 
in  solution,  regardless  of  whether  the  water  is  flowing  as  a  stream 
on  the  earth's  surface,  as  a  distinct  flow  through  underground 
cavities  or  passages,  or  as  a  capillary  flow  through  the  rocks  of 
the  earth's  crust.  Under  favorable  circumstances  the  iron- 
charged  water  might  reach  the  ocean  without  having  any  need 
or  opportunity  to  deposit  any  portion  of  the  iron  which  it  carries. 
This  is  in  fact  the  usual  result,  and  the  cases  where  ore  deposition 
elsewhere  has  occurred,  are  less  common.  Since  wTe  are  in- 
terested particularly  in  this  last  class  of  results,  however,  it  will 
be  well  to  study  their  history  in  more  detail. 

Water  carrying  iron  in  solution  may  be  forced  to  deposit  part 
or  all  of  this  iron,  and  this  deposition  may  be  caused  by  physical, 
chemical  or  organic  agencies.  It  would  be  idle  to  attempt  to 
catalogue  all  the  possible  causes  of  such  deposition;  but  those  of 
the  greatest  importance  are  as  follows: 

1.  Iron-charged  waters  traversing  limestone  beds  are  apt  to 
deposit   iron   carbonate   and  to   dissolve   lime   carbonate,   this 
transfer  being  due  to  the  relative  solubilities  of  the  two  carbonates. 

2.  Iron-charged  waters  which  for  any  reason  experience  a 
decrease  in  temperature,   pressure  or  percentage  of  dissolved 
carbon  dioxide  will  deposit  iron  compounds  as  a  consequence. 

3.  Iron-charged  waters  coming  to  rest  in  an  enclosed  or  partly 
enclosed  basin  will,  as  evaporation  and  chemical  reactions  affect 
them,  deposit  iron  compounds. 

4.  Iron-charged  waters  may  also  deposit  iron  compounds  as 
the  result,  either  direct  or  indirect,  of  organic  agencies. 

All  of  these  principal  causes  of  iron  deposition  will  be  discussed 
in  more  detail  in  the  following  chapters. 


THE  FORMATION  OF  IRON  ORE  DEPOSITS       39 

The  Alteration  of  Existing  Deposits. — The  water-formed  de- 
posits so  far  considered  result  in  the  formation  of  a  new  ore 
deposit  in  a  new  place.  But  there  are  several  types  of  iron-ore 
deposits  which  owe  their  present  location  or  form  or  character  to 
the  fact  that  a  pre-existing  deposit  of  iron  mineral  has  been  more 
or  less  altered  or  re-made.  The  chief  factor  in  the  alteration  is 
commonly,  as  in  the  other  groups,  surface  or  sub-surface  water; 
but  the  element  of  transport  by  water  is  either  not  present  at 
all,  or  it  enters  in  only  a  minor  degree.  These  deposits  are 
conveniently  called  Alteration  Deposits. 

The  alteration  deposits  include  two  important  and  well-known 
types,  and  a  third  of  less  importance  except  locally.  The  two 
important  groups  are  the  Residual  ores  and  the  Gossan  ores. 
In  the  first  class  an  iron-bearing  rock  has  been  leached  of  its  non- 
ferrous  constituents,  so  as  to  leave  behind  a  relatively  enriched 
mass  of  iron  ore.  In  the  second,  a  pyrite  body  has  been  altered, 
in  part  at  least,  to  iron  oxide.  In  the  third  and  least  important 
class,  which  can  be  best  treated  as  a  merely  local  phenomenon, 
a  pre-existing,  iron  ore  deposit  has  been  changed  in  mineral 
character  by  metamorphism  or  local  igneous  action. 

Summary  of  Working  Classification. — By  making  use  of  the 
data  presented  on  the  pages  immediately  preceding,  it  is  possible 
to  develop  a  working  classification  of  iron-ore  deposits  which  will 
be  fairly  satisfactory,  both  as  regards  logical  completeness  and 
practical  utility.  The  grouping  suggested  in  the  following  table 
has  been  adopted  for  use  in  this  volume. 

SUMMARY  OF  CLASSIFICATION  OF  IRON-ORE  DEPOSITS 

A.  Sedimentary  or  bedded  deposits.        B.  2.  Normal  replacements. 

A.  1.  Transported  concentrates.  B.  3.  Secondary  concentrations. 

A.  2.  Spring  deposits.  B.  4.  Contact  replacements. 

A.  3.  Bog  and  lake  ores.  C.  Alteration  deposits. 

A.  4.  Marine  basin  deposits.  C.  1.  Laterite  deposits. 

I.  Carbonate  deposits.  C.  2.  Solution  residuals. 

II.  Silicate  deposits.  C.  3.  Gossan  deposits. 

III.  Oxide  deposits.  D.  Igneous  deposits. 

B.  Replacements  and  fillings.  D.  1.  Magmatic  segregations. 

B.  1.  Cavity  and  pore  fillings. 

Relative  Importance  of  the  Groups. — In  any  general  discussion 
of  the  origin  of  iron- ore  deposits,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  many 
'possible  types  of  origin,  as  has  been  done  in  the  grouping  pre- 
sented above,  and  as  will  be  done  in  more  detail  in  later  chapters. 


40  IRON  ORES 

Though  this  method  of  treatment  adds  to  the  thoroughness  and 
completeness  of  the  discussion,  and  though  it  appears  to  be 
logically  a  necessity,  it  has  the  very  unfortunate  defect  of  causing 
the  reader  to  lose  sight  of  the  real  relative  importance  of  the 
various  types  or  classes  discussed.  For  that  reason  it  seems 
desirable  to  emphasize  here  one  very  important  fact  regarding 
our  workable  supplies  of  iron  ore: 

There  are  many  ways  in  which  iron  ore  deposits  can  originate, 
but  only  a  few  of  these  possible  modes  of  origin  have  given  rise  to 
deposits  of  serious  commercial  importance.  Practically  all  the 
known  iron-ore  supply  of  the  world  is,  and  will  be,  derived  from  (a) 
sedimentary  basin  deposits,  from  (b)  replacement  deposits,  or  (c) 
residual  deposits.  Of  these,  the  sedimentary  ores  are  of  by  far  the 
greatest  importance. 

The  correctness  of  this  statement  of  the  case  will  be  seen 
when  the  facts  are  examined,  for  it  is  now  fortunately  possible 
to  place  the  matter  on  a  quantitative  basis. 

For  comparison  with  the  theoretical  or  textbook  importance 
of  the  various  types  of  iron- ore  deposits,  we  have  available  esti- 
mates of  reserve  tonnage  on  three  of  the  continents — North  and 
South  America,  and  Europe.  The  scattered  data  available  for 
the  three  remaining  continents  are  of  little  service  for  any 
purpose. 

As  a  basis  for  our  subdivision  by  types,  the  following  estimates 
may  be  tentatively  accepted  as  being  close  enough  for  our  pur- 
poses. The  figures  for  Europe  are  taken  unchanged  from 
the  International  Geologic  Congress  report  on  the  iron  ores  of 
the  world;  those  for  North  and  South  America  are  as  given  in 
Chapter  XXIX  of  the  present  volume. 

Area  Reserve  tonnage 

Newfoundland  and  Canada 4,150  million  tons 

Lake  Super'or  district 2,500 

Southern  United  States 3,750 

Eastern  and  western  U.  S 1,300 

Cuba,  Mexico,  etc 3,060 


Total  North  America 14,760  million  tons 

South  America 8,000 

Europe '  12,032 


Total,  three  known  continents 34,792  million  tons 


FORMATION  OF  IRON  ORE  DEPOSITS  41 

As  soon  as  we  attempt  to  divide  these  totals  among  the  classes 
of  ore  deposits  described  in  current  literature,  several  facts  be- 
come obvious.  First,  the  total  tonnage  of  bog  ores  and  beach 
sands  known  to  exist  anywhere  in  usable  condition  is  so  small  that 
no  space  need  be  reserved  for  either  class  in  our  new  grouping. 
Second,  since  the  titaniferous  ores  are  omitted,  the  class  of 
magmatic  segregations  has  no  very  certain  representative  left. 
Under  these  circumstances,  it  seems  best  to  throw  all  the  doubtful 
magnetites  into  the  same  group. 

Tabulated  in  the  same  order  as  in  the  preceding  table,  we  get 
results  as  follows;  the  quantities  being  given  in  millions  of  tons. 

Arnica   American  =««*•  T°*"  *«•«* 

Bog  ores' and  beach  sands 0000       0.0 

Sedimentary  basin  deposits 6,030      7,500  8,407  21,937  63.1 

Normal  replacements 310             0  1,441  1,751       5.0 

Secondary  concentrations 2,750             0  0  2,750       7.9 

Contact  deposits 680         350  507  1,537       4.4 

Residual  deposits 4,350             0  272  4,622  13.3 

Magmatic  segregations 0             0  0  0       0.0 

Doubtful  magnetites 640         150  1405  2,195       6.3 

Totals,  millions  of  tons 14,760      8,000      12,032      34,792     100.09 

On  studying  these  comparative  tables,  it  would  seem  that  the 
real  importance  of  the  sedimentary  ores  has  been  heavily  under- 
rated even  by  the  best  authorities.  The  fact  that,  of  the  world's 
five  great  competitive  steel  centers,  four  depend  largely  or  en- 
tirely upon  ore  of  this  type  does  not  appear  to  have  been  noted. 
It  might  be  added  that  the  above  estimates  are  based  upon  ore 
of  current  commercial  grade;  if  we  assumed  that  lower  grade 
ores  would  in  time  be  used,  the  percentage  of  the  sedimentary 
reserves  would  be  still  further  increased.  For  current  estimates, 
however,  we  may  assume  that  the  sedimentary  ore  reserves  con- 
tain about  two-thirds  of  the  world's  iron  supply;  and  that  all  of 
the  igneous  and  doubtful  ores  together  make  up  about  one- 
sixteenth  of  the  world's  reserve. 

The  comparison  may,  indeed,  be  carried  further  with  even  more 
striking  results.  If  we  add  together  all  the  ores  which  anyone 
considers  to  have  originated  by  magmatic  segregation,  all  the 
ores  which  are  due  to  contact  action,  and  all  of  the  magnetites 
whose  origin  is  in  doubt,  we  find  that  the  total  amounts  to 
less  than  1 1  percent  of  the  known  ore  reserves  of  the  world.  We 


42 


IRON  ORES 


may  fairly  say,  therefore,  that  stretching  the  theory  of  igneous 
action  to  its  greatest  possible  extent,  and  including  all  ores  which 
anyone  considers  may  be  due  to  it,  directly  or  indirectly,  we  get 
results  which  compare  as  follows: 

Direct  sedimentary  deposition 63. 1  percent 

Surficial  weathering  and  chemical  action.     26.2 
Igneous  action,  direct  and  indirect 10.7 


100 . 0  percent 

The  Ratio  of  Geologic  Concentration. — Some  of  our  known  iron- 
ore  deposits  are  so  impressive  as  to  size  that  it  is  difficult  to  re- 
member that  they 
bear  an  almost  in- 
finitely small  r  e  - 
lation  to  the  amount 
of  iron  not  concen- 
trated into  ores, 
but  disseminated 
throughout  the 
rocks  which  form 
the  crust  of  the  earth. 
All  of  our  known  ore 
deposits  must  have 
originally  been  de- 
rived, by  a  series  of 
changes  and  concen- 
trations, from  such 
disseminated  iron. 
The  extent  to  which 
this  concentration 
has  been  carried  is 

of  iron-ore  deposits.  a   matter    of  serious 

geologic  importance ; 

and  since  it  is  possible  to  determine  it  with  all  the  precision 
which  the  problem  warrants,  the  following  calculations  have 
been  prepared. 

According  to  Clarke's  latest  estimates,  the  crust  of  the  earth 
averages  4.44  percent  metallic  iron.  On  this  basis,  that  portion 
of  the  crust  which  underlies  the  United  States,  to  a  depth  of 
1000  feet,  should  contain  a  little  over  275  millions  of  millions 
of  tons  of  disseminated  iron. 


Sedimentary  Ores 


Residual  Ores 


Secondary  Concentrations 


Magnetites  of  Doubtful  Origin 


Normal  Replacements 


m  Contact  Deposits 

FIG.  3. — Relative  importance  of  various  types 


THE  FORMATION  OF  IRON  ORE  DEPOSITS       43 

To  compare  with  this  enormous  total,  we  can  not  estimate  the 
present  known  ore  deposits  of  the  United  States,  of  current  com- 
mercial grade,  at  much  over  7500  million  tons,  containing  possibly 
3300  million  tons  of  metallic  iron,  as  is  shown  in  a  later  chapter 
of  this  volume.  The  ratio  between  total  disseminated  iron  and 
total  commercial  ore  is  therefore  over  80,000  :  1.  Even  if  we 
lower  our  ideas  of  grade  so  as  to  include  35  percent  ores  in  the 
Lake  region  and  25  percent  limey  ores  in  the  South,  the  ratio 
would  still  be  over  8000  :  1.  At  the  most,  therefore,  only  about 
one-hundredth  of  1  percent  of  the  theoretically  available  iron 
in  that  portion  of  the  earth's  crust  has  been  placed  in  commercially 
available  form  by  geologic  agencies. 

The  Geologic  Age  of  Iron  Deposits. — Iron-ore  deposits,  as  now 
found,  are  associated  with  rocks  of  different  geologic  age.  In  some 
cases,  as  in  the  basin  deposits  described  in  Ch.  V,  the  ore  deposits 
were  formed  at  the  same  time  as  the  rocks  which  now  enclose 
them,  and  are  therefore  of  the  same  geologic  age  as  those  rocks. 
In  other  cases,  however,  as  in  the  replacement  deposits  (Ch.  VI), 
the  ore  was  deposited  long  after  the  rocks  were  formed,  and  in 
these  cases  the  ore  deposit  is  geologically  of  a  different  age  from 
its  associated  rocks. 

The  matter  in  which  we  are  chiefly  interested  is  not  the  age  of 
the  enclosing  rocks,  for  that  is  often  purely  incidental,  but  the 
age  of  the  ore  deposits  themselves.  When  this  matter  is  taken 
up  on  a  sufficiently  broad  basis,  with  an  adequate  supply  of 
data  on  which  to  base  conclusions,  we  find  that  the  iron  ore 
deposits  of  the  world  are  not,  so  far  as  geologic  age  is  concerned, 
purely  as  a  matter  of  accident.  There  appear  to  have  been  cer- 
tain periods  in  which  no  iron  deposits  of  serious  importance 
were  formed  anywhere;  while  at  certain  other  periods  the  condi- 
tions favoring  iron  deposition  appear  to  have  been  generally 
favorable.  Five  such  important  periods  of  iron  deposition  can  be 
made  out  with  some  certainty,  and  are  worthy  of  brief  attention : 

1.  In  the  earliest  geologic  age — the  pre-Cambrian  or  Archaean 
— the  conditions  favored  iron  deposition  more  generally  than  in 
any  subsequent  period.  The  rocks  then  exposed  at  the  surface 
carried  notably  higher  percentages  of  iron  than  the  average  would 
now  show;  and  it  is  possible  that  during  some  portions  of  this 
period  chemical  activities  were  greater  than  in  later  ages.  What- 
ever the  reason,  the  pre-Cambrian  rocks  all  over  the  world  carry 


44  IRON  ORES 

important  iron- ore  deposits.  During  this  period,  for  example, 
the  original  lean  ores  were  laid  down  in  the  Lake  Superior  basin, 
which  since  their  original  deposition  have  been  so  concentrated 
as  to  yield  our  present  ore  deposits.  Elsewhere  hematite  and 
magnetite  deposits  of  this  age  are  relatively  common. 

2.  The  next  important  period  of  iron  deposition  covers  the 
upper  Cambrian  and  lower  Silurian  periods,  whose  rocks  con- 
tain the  well-known  bedded  red  hematites  of  Newfoundland,  of 
eastern  Canada  and  of  the  eastern  and  southern  United  States. 

3.  During  the  Carboniferous  period,  in  Europe  and  the  east- 
ern and  central  United  States  at  least,  iron  deposition  became 
active  again,  owing  probably  less  to  any  great  amount  of  free  iron 
available  than  to  the  excessive  amount  of  reducing  agencies 
available.     The  result  is  that,  associated  with  the  coal  series,  we 
have  relatively  thin  and  low  grade,  but  very  extensive,  deposits 
of  iron  carbonate.     Owing  to  their  close  association  with  coal, 
these  carbonate  deposits  have  an  industrial  importance  which 
would  not  be  otherwise  warranted  by  their  thickness  or  grade. 

4.  In  the  Jurassic  formations  of  western  Europe  a  series  of 
bedded  ores  appear,  closely  similar  to  our  own  Clinton  hematites 
in  character  and  origin.     These  ores,  particularly  in  the  Luxem- 
bourg-Lorraine basin,  are  present  in  heavy   tonnages,  and  are 
particularly  important  factors  in  the  world's  iron  and  steel  trade. 

5.  During  the  Tertiary  age  conditions  favored  deposition  of 
brown  ores  in  many  portions  of  the  world.     The  brown  ores  of 
Cuba,  India  and  the  southern  and  eastern  United  States  were,  in 
practically  all  determinable  cases,  deposited  during  the  Tertiary. 
These  brown-ore  deposits  are,  of  course,  associated  with  rocks 
of  varying  geologic  age,  but  the  ore  deposits  themselves  are  very 
uniform  in  time  of  origin. 


CHAPTER  V 
SEDIMENTARY  OR  BEDDED  DEPOSITS 

This  group  of  iron-ore  deposits  includes  such  as  occur  in  true 
beds  or  strata,  the  iron  having  been  originally  transported  in  sus- 
pension or  solution  by  running  water,  and  having  been  deposited 
from  such  suspension  or  solution  by  purely  mechanical  action,  by 
evaporation,  by  chemical  reactions  or  by  organic  agencies.  Such 
deposition  takes  place  at  the  earth's  surface,  and  the  deposits 
are  usually  made  in  bodies  of  water.  The  ore  deposit  so  formed 
may  later  be  covered  by  a  bed  of  some  other  rock,  in  which  case 
the  ore  deposit  will  necessarily  be  younger  than  the  rocks  which 
underlie  it  and  older  that  those  which  overlie  it.  In  all  of  its 
essential  features  a  sedimentary  ore  deposit,  as  worked  to-day,  is 
in  just  the  same  condition  as  when  its  deposition  was  just  com- 
pleted, though  subsequent  metamorphism  or  other  action  may 
have  changed  it  in  some  less  important  regards. 

The  deposition  of  iron  ores  by  purely  sedimentary  processes 
has  gone  on  during  all  of  the  known  geologic  periods,  and  the  im- 
portant deposits  of  this  type  range  in  age  from  pre-Cambrian  to 
Cretaceous.  They  are  remarkable  among  ore  deposits,  not  only 
for  the  enormous  tonnages  concerned  and  the  areas  covered  by 
groups  of  deposits,  but  for  the  size  and  continuity  of  individual 
deposits  or  beds.  Instances  of  these  will  be  given  later. 

Iron  ores  of  purely  sedimentary  origin  make  up  a  far  more  im- 
portant class  than  might  be  suspected  by  reference  to  current  liter- 
ature on  ore  deposits.  Of  the  total  known  commercial  iron- ore  re- 
serves of  the  world,  the  sedimentary  ores  make  up  about  two- 
thirds  in  tonnage;  and  of  the  lower-grade  ores  which  may  per- 
haps be  used  in  future,  they  constitute  an  even  larger  fraction. 
The  iron  and  steel  industries  of  the  Rhine,  of  Middlesboro,  of 
Belgium,  of  France,  of  Alabama  and  of  Nova  Scotia  are  based, 
largely  or  entirely,  upon  ores  of  sedimentary  character.  The 
only  really  important  deposits  which  are  not  of  purely  sedimen- 
tary origin  are  those  of  the  Lake  Superior  district,  and  even  these 
are  modified  and  enriched  sediments. 

45 


46  IRON  ORES 

These  facts  are  ample  justification  for  devoting  to  sedimentary 
ores  far  more  space,  in  the  present  volume,  than  is  commonly 
assigned  to  them.  We  are  dealing  with  a  class  of  ores  upon  which 
most  of  the  world's  present  mining  and  metallurgical  practice 
is  based,  and  on  which  we  may  depend  still  more  heavily  in 
future.  The  facts  relative  to  their  characters  and  occurrence, 
and  the  theories  as  to  their  origin,  must  therefore  possess  an  im- 
portance which  could  hardly  be  overrated. 

The  sedimentary  ores  agree  in  that  they  were  all  transported,  in 
solution  or  suspension,  by  surface  waters  to  their  place  of  de- 
position; that  they  were  deposited  in  substantially  the  same  form 
in  which  they  are  now  found;  and  that  they  form  sedimentary 
beds,  associated  and  interstratified  with  other  sedimentary  rocks. 
Beyond  this,  however,  there  were  wide  differences  as  to  the  de- 
tails of  the  mode  of  deposition,  and  the  ores  themselves  differ 
greatly  as  regards  mineral  character,  grade,  etc.  Some  of  these 
points  of  agreement  and  difference  may  be  profitably  touched 
upon  in  the  present  place,  before  going  on  to  a  discussion  of  the 
separate  types  or  classes. 

It  has  been  noted  that  the  sedimentary  ores  differ  widely  in 
mineral  character.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  include  all  the 
normal  iron  minerals,  for  we  find  that  different  sedimentary  de- 
posits may  consist  predominantly  of  magnetite,  of  hematite,  of  a 
brown  ore,  of  carbonate,  or  of  one  of  several  iron  silicates.  Of 
the  better-known  deposits,  those  of  Newfoundland,  Brazil,  and 
Alabama  are  hematites;  those  of  Lorraine  are  brown  ores;  while 
the  Middlesboro  ores  are  carbonates. 

Further,  the  difference  in  grade  of  ore  is  equally  marked,  rang- 
ing from  25  to  30  percent  metallic  iron  for  the  English  carbonates 
and  the  poorer  Lorraine  ores,  through  33  to  37  percent  for  the 
southern  Clinton  ores  and  the  better  ores  of  French  Lorraine,  up 
to  52  percent  and  over  for  the  Newfoundland  ores  and  well  above 
60  percent  for  the  Brazilian  hematites.  Along  with  this  range 
in  iron  content  is  a  wide  range  in  sulphur  and  phosphorus;  though 
if  the  Brazilian  and  beach  sand  ores  be  excepted  there  would  be 
more  uniformity  in  these  regards.  Excluding  these  two  excep- 
tional types,  we  might  fairly  say  that  the  sedimentary  ores  are 
normally  high  in  phosphorus  and  often  rather  high  in  sul- 
phur. More  detailed  data  on  these  points  will  be  presented 
later. 


SEDIMENTARY  OR  BEDDED  DEPOSITS  47 

As  to  mode  of  origin,  there  are  two  widely  contrasted  types  of 
sedimentary  iron  ores.  The  first,  which  is  of  little  commercial 
importance,  includes  the  deposits  of  purely  mechanical  origin, 
in  which  the  ores  were  carried  in  suspension  as  particles  of  iron 
mineral,  and  finally  deposited  along  beaches  or  elsewhere  in  a 
water  basin.  The  second  class  includes  the  highly  important 
cases  in  which  the  iron  now  included  in  the  ores  was  transported 
by  surface  waters  in  solution,  and  was  finally  deposited  through 
chemical  or  organic  agencies. 

In  our  further  discussion  of  the  sedimentary  ores  it  will  be  con- 
venient to  make  use  of  some  of  these  differences  in  method  of 
origin  and  types  of  deposit  in  order  to  subdivide  this  large  class  of 
ore  deposits  into  units  of  workable  size.  In  doing  this,  the  me- 
chanically formed  sediments  will  of  course  make  up  one  separate 
class,  as  distinguished  from  those  formed  by  deposit  from  solu- 
tion. It  would  be  pleasant  if  we  could  go  further,  and  subdivide 
this  second  sub-class  according  to  the  exact  mode  in  which  its 
ores  were  deposited.  But  in  the  light  of  our  present  knowledge 
such  a  purely  genetic  classification  would  not  give  results  that 
could  be  applied  in  actual  practice,  so  that  some  compromise 
must  be  arrived  at  between  theoretical  accuracy  and  practica- 
bility. The  grouping  which  has  been  adopted  for  the  present 
work  is  as  follows : 

Sedimentary  Iron  Ores. — A.  Deposits  of  mechanical  origin, 
in  which  an  iron  mineral,  derived  from  the  decay  of  a  pre-existing 
rock,  is  carried  in  suspension  by  surface  water  and  finally 
deposited  by  purely  mechanical  agencies. 

1.  Transported  concentrates;  deposits  of  an  iron  mineral  (usually 
magnetite)  along  stream  beds,  sea  beaches,  etc. 

B.  Deposits  of  chemical  origin,  in  which  iron,  carried  largely 
or  entirely  in  solution  by  surface  waters,  is  deposited  as  a  chemical 
precipitate,  with  or  without  the  aid  of  organic  action. 

2.  Spring  deposits;  iron  deposits  made  by  springs  at  their 
point  of  issue.     Unimportant  commercially,  but  mentioned  as 
affording  an  interesting  link  with  another  type  of  deposit. 

3.  Bog  deposits;  in  which  iron  minerals    (brown  ores,  pyrite 
or  carbonate)  are  deposited  in  swamps  or  lakes  chiefly  as  the 
result  of  organic  action. 

4.  Marine  basin  deposits;  in  which  iron  ores  are  deposited  in 
a  completely  or  partly  enclosed  sea-basin,  as  the  result  of  evapora- 


48  IRON  ORES 

tion,  chemical  reactions,  or  organic  agencies.  This  group  in- 
cludes three  fairly  distinct  sub-types,  differing  not  only  in  the 
common  iron  mineral  occurring,  but  also  in  their  structural  and 
genetic  relations. 

4a.  Marine  carbonate  deposits. 
46.  Marine  silicate  deposits. 
4c.   Marine  oxide  deposits. 

The  order  in  which  the  preceding  classes  have  been  arranged 
is  that  of  our  knowledge  concerning  their  exact  mode  of  origin. 
It  happens,  it  may  be  interesting  to  note,  that  this  is  almost  the 
exact  reverse  of  the  order  of  their  commercial  importance. 

A.  i.  TRANSPORTED  CONCENTRATES 

This  term  will  be  here  applied  as  a  convenient  general  name 
for  the  deposits,  of  mechanical  origin,  which  are  formed  when  iron 
minerals  which  have  been  carried  in  suspension  by  running  water 
are  finally  deposited.  It  will  therefore  include  deposits  of  the 
stream  placer  type,  as  well  as  the  beds  of  beach  sand,  river  sand, 
etc.,  which  occasionally  attract  attention  as  possible  sources  of 
iron.  Except  for  the  use  of  the  Japanese  sands  and  the  recur- 
rent interest  in  the  St.  Lawrence  deposits,  this  group  could  be 
dismissed  with  little  notice.  In  practically  all  cases  the  iron 
mineral  in  these  deposits  is  magnetite. 

The  deposits  are  formed  when  a  stream  or  ocean  current  is 
supplied  with  fine  grains  of  magnetite  or  hematite,  generally 
derived  from  the  decay  of  igneous  or  metamorphic  rocks.  If  the 
supply  be  large  and  steady  enough,  the  iron  mineral  may  be 
carried  along  until  the  velocity  of  the  current  is  checked  at  some 
point,  and  there  a  deposit  of  iron  sand  may  form. 

It  is  obvious  that  such  deposits  of  iron  sands  as  may  be 
formed  along  small  streams,  or  along  the  upper  courses  of  rivers, 
are  unlikely  to  be  of  sufficient  size  to  be  of  even  local  use  as 
sources  of  iron.  On  the  other  hand,  at  favorable  positions  along 
the  sea-coast,  or  on  the  lower  tidal  reaches  of  large  rivers,  we  do 
find  iron-sand  deposits  which  are  of  size  sufficient  to  justify 
attention.  The  two  difficulties  which  generally  intervene  to 
prevent  any  serious  commercial  use  are  (1)  that  many  of  the  de- 
posits carry  undesirable  and  difficultly  separable  minerals  a  long 
with  the  magnetite,  and  (2)  that  storms  cause  so  much  shifting 
in  the  sands  as  to  prevent  economic  working. 


SEDIMENTARY  ORE  BEDDED  DEPOSITS 


49 


B.  2.  SPRING  DEPOSITS 

Underground  waters  carrying  iron  in  solution  are  apt  to  deposit 
a  portion  at  least  of  this  iron  at  points  where  they  reach  the  surface 
as  springs.  These  spring  deposits  are  occasionally  of  considerable 
size,  but  their  principal  interest  arises  from  the  fact  that  they 
form  a  connecting  link  between  the  surface  or  sedimentary  de- 
posits described  in  the  present  section,  and  the  underground 
cave  fillings  later  described. 

The  deposition  is  usually  due  to  loss  of  carbon  dioxide, -and 
consequent  precipitation  of  part  of  the  iron  which  the  water  has 
been  carrying.     The 
ore  as   deposited  is 
commonly   a    loose, 
porous    mass    of 
brown  ore;  but   oc- 
casionally  the   con- 
current deposition  of 
lime    carbonate   re- 


jjjjjJL  Spring  Deposit  Brown  Ore. 


suits  in  the  forma- 
tion of  a  more  solid 
deposit  of  mixed  iron 
oxide  and  lime  car- 
bonate. 

When  free  from  lime  carbonate,  the  porous  brown  ores  de- 
posited by  springs  are  normally  high  in  iron  and  combined 
water,  and  low  in  phosphorus.  They  may  be  either  very  high 
or  very  low  in  sulphur,  according  to  the  source  from  which  the 
spring  water  derived  its  iron. 

As  previously  noted,  the  chief  reason  for  the  discussion  of 
spring  deposits  is  that  they  are  related  both  to  the  bog  ores  next 
to  be  described,  and  to  the  cave  deposits  discussed  in  Chapter  VI. 


Forest  Soil 


FIG.  4.  —  Spring   deposit    of   brown    ore,    West 
Virginia. 


B.  3.  BOG  DEPOSITS 

When  surface  waters  carrying  iron  in  solution  enter  a  pond 
or  bog  charged  with  decaying  vegetable  matter,  reactions  take 
place  which  usually  result  in  the  precipitation  of  a  bed  of  spongy 
brown  ore.  These  bog  ores  are  of  no  particular  importance  at 
the  present  day,  and  do  not  deserve  the  space  which  is  commonly 
accorded  them  in  the  literature  of  the  subject.  It  was  at  one 


50  IRON  ORES 

time  believed  that  many  of  our  commercial  brown-ore  deposits 
originated  in  this  way,  but  later  investigations  have  showed  that 
most  workable  brown  ores  are  formed  in  far  different  fashion 
than  the  bog  ores. 

Surface  waters,  carrying  iron  in  solution  in  the  form  of  car- 
bonate, sulphate  or  as  an  organic  compound,  tend  to  deposit  their 
iron  in  bogs,  swamps  or  lakes.  The  deposition  is  in  part  due  to 
simple  loss  of  carbon  dioxide  by  exposure  to  the  air,  and  in  part 
to  more  complex  reactions  dependent  upon  the  presence  in  the 
water-basin  of  abundant  animal  or  vegetable  matter.  The  ore 
may  be  deposited  as  brown  ore,  as  carbonate  or  as  sulphide;  but 
normally  whatever  its  immediate  form  of  deposition  it  will 
ultimately  revert  to  the  stable  hydrated  oxide — brown  ore. 

Bog  ores  have  been  worked  steadily,  to  a  small  extent  an- 
nually, in  Quebec  and  in  Sweden;  while  in  England  and  the 
United  States  small  tonnages  have  been  mined  in  times  past. 
They  are  normally  high  in  phosphorus;  and  vary  greatly  in 
sulphur  content. 

ANALYSES  OF  BOG  AND  LAKE  ORES 


1 

2 

3 

4 

Ferric  oxide  

60.74 

70.04 

69.64 

67.50 

Ferrous  oxide  

0.72 

Manganese  oxide  

1.18 

1.78 

2.99 

1.45 

Slica  

13.94 

7.84 

8.17 

7.81 

Alumina  

2  .  59 

2.20 

2.43 

4.18 

Lime  

3  .  47 

0.32 

0.47 

Magnesia  

0.93 

0.27 

0.60 

0.23 

Sulphur  

0.078 

0.093 

0.036 

Phosphorus  

0.302 

0.331 

0.205 

0.081 

Loss  on  ignition  

16.49 

16.84 

15.00 

17.81 

Metallic  iron  

42.52 

49.03 

49.31 

47.22 

1,  2,  3.  Bog  ores  from  Three  Rivers  district,  Quebec-     Griffin. 
4.  Swedish  lake  ore.     Phillips. 

B.  4.    BASIN  DEPOSITS 

The  class  now  to  be  discussed  includes  some  of  the  most  impor- 
tant iron-ore  deposits  of  the  world,  from  an  industrial  point  of 
view. 

Iron  ores  of  this  type  form  extensive  deposits,  interbedded  with 
shales,  limestones  and  other  shallow  water  marine  formations. 
The  ores  themselves  appear  to  have  originated  chiefly  by  deposi- 
tion from  solution,  the  deposition  commonly  taking  place  in 


SEDIMENTARY  OR  BEDDED  DEPOSITS       51 

shallow  marine  basins,  which  were  at  times  partly  or  entirely  cut 
off  from  the  sea.  Two  of  the  three  sub-classes  to  be  considered 
are  of  purely  marine  origin;  but  the  third — the  iron  carbonates — 
includes  beds  deposited  under  brackish  water  conditions  as  well  as 
marine  beds. 

All  of  the  deposits  included  under  the  general  class  of  Basin 
Deposits  agree  in  their  broad  mode  of  origin;  but  the  class  con- 
tains a  very  large  number  of  deposits  of  great  tonnage  and  in- 
dustrial importance,  and  differing  among  themselves  not  only  as 
to  the  details  of  their  origin  but  still  more  widely  in  the  character 
and  associations  of  their  ores.  It  will  be  convenient,  therefore, 
to  make  some  subdivision  of  the  general  group.  If  the  details 
of  the  origin  of  all  of  the  deposits  were  definitely  known,  it  would 
be  possible  and  perhaps  advisable  to  make  this  subdivision  along 
purely  genetic  lines,  but  at  present  this  can  not  be  done  satis- 
factorily. The  grouping  adopted  for  the  present  volume  is  based 
rather  upon  the  character  and  usual  associations  of  the  ores  than 
upon  other  grounds,  although  as  will  be  seen  there  are  accom- 
panying differences  in  mode  of  origin.  The  three  sub-classes 
accepted  will  include  respectively  (1)  the  sedimentary  iron  car- 
bonate ores;  (2)  the  iron  silicate  ores,  and  (3)  the  iron  oxide  ores 
occurring  as  marine  sediments.  The  order  in  which  these  three 
types  are  named  is  not  that  of  their  industrial  importance,  but 
rather  that  in  which  their  relative  modes  of  origin  can  be  best 
taken  up. 

43.  BASIN  DEPOSITS— IRON  CARBONATES 

Associated  with  marine  sedimentary  beds  of  various  ages  bed- 
ded deposits  of  more  or  less  pure  iron  carbonate  are  found.  The 
ores  may  vary  greatly  in  their  grade,  in  their  age  and  associ- 
ations, and  to  some  extent  in  the  details  of  their  origin.  But  on 
the  other  hand,  there  are  certain  broad  points  oif  resemblance 
which  make  it  advisable  to  group  together  all  of  the  sedimentary 
carbonates.  The  points,  both  of  general  resemblance  and  of  in- 
dividual difference,  can  be  best  understood  and  balanced  if  the 
different  features  of  the  deposits  are  taken  up  separately. 

Extent  of  the  Deposits. — In  the  extent,  both  of  the  individual 
deposits  and  of  the  general  areas  of  ore  deposition,  the  carbonate 
ores  are  remarkable.  In  the  first  regard — the  size  of  the  larger 


52  IRON  ORES 

individual  ore  beds — they  are  surpassed  only  by  some  of  the 
marine  oxide  deposits  later  discussed.  In  the  second  regard — 
the  areas  over  which  ore  deposition  was  in  progress  at  a  given 
time — the  carbonate  ores  of  some  series  will  probably  surpass  even 
the  Clinton  ore  beds. 

Age  and  Associated  Rocks. — Since  conditions  favoring  the  de- 
position of  bedded  iron  carbonates  have  occurred  frequently 
during  all  periods  of  geologic  history,  we  find  that  the  industrially 
important  deposits  have  a  very  wide  range  in  geologic  age. 
In  different  countries  carbonates  are  worked  from  beds  varying 
from  the  Devonian  or  earlier  to  the  Cretaceous.  In  some  cases 
the  older  carbonate  ores  have  been  altered,  through  the  general 
metamorphism  of  the  region  in  which  they  occur,  and  now  appear 
in  forms  somewhat  different  from  those  in  which  they  were 
originally  laid  down.  In  general,  however,  the  commercial  ores 
are  of  quite  simple  type  and  relations. 

The  rocks  most  commonly  and  intimately  associated  with 
beds  of  iron  carbonate  are  beds  or  layers  of  clay  and  shale. 
These  are  frequently  high  in  organic  matter;  and  at  times  the 
carbonate  ores  are  found  in  close  association  with  coal  beds. 

On  a  later  page,  in  discussing  the  English  ores,  sections  are 
given  of  the  ore  beds  in  the  Middlesboro  district.  At  present  a 
section  of  the  strata  involved  in  one  of  the  many  carbonate  beds 
of  South  Wales,  quoted  from  Kendall,  will  be  of  more  service. 

Feet    Inches  Feet    Inches 

Ironstone  (carbonate) .  0  3  Shale 3  10 

Shale 0  11  Ironstone 0  5 

Ironstone 0  1  Shale 3  3 

Shale 2  4  Ironstone 0  1 

Ironstone 0  1  Shale 0  9 

The  12  feet  of  the  section  contain,  it  will  be  noted,  five 
layers  of  iron  carbonate  and  five  beds  of  shale;  and  the  aggregate 
thickness  of  iron  carbonate  is  only  1  foot.  Of  course  there  are 
richer  sections  than  this  in  the  Dowlais  district,  but  this  will  do  to 
exemplify  the  alternations  in  the  series. 

Structure  of  the  Ores. — There  are  two  general  types  of  structure 
which  are  common  among  iron  carbonate  ores.  First,  and  by 
far  more  frequently,  the  ores  are  found  in  nodular  or  concretion- 
ary forms,  in  beds  of  clay  or  shale.  Second,  the  ore  is  occasionally 
found  as  a  massive  structureless  layer  or  bed. 


SEDIMENTARY  OR  BEDDED  DEPOSITS  53 

Whether  occurring  as  concretion  or  as*  separate  bed,  the  car- 
bonate ores  rarely  show  any  trace  of  internal  structure  except 
the  concentric  layering  due  to  concretionary  origin.  Occasionally, 
however,  carbonate  ores  are  found  which  under  the  microscope 
show  a  more  or  less  definite  oolitic  structure.  But  they  rarely 
if  ever  show  such  oolitic  structure  with  the  perfection  or  the  fre- 
quency with  which  it  occurs  in  the  sedimentary  oxide  ores. 

Composition  of  the  Ores. — The  iron  carbonate  ores  are  all 
usually  of  low  grade,  as  compared  with  the  average  magnetite, 
hematite  or  brown  ore.  This  is  due  partly  to  the  fact  that  even 
a  theoretically  pure  iron  carbonate  is  not  a  particularly  rich 
source  of  iron — for  pure  siderite  carries  only  48.2  percent  metallic 
iron,  as  compared  with  the  70  percent  carried  by  pure  hematite. 
A  partly  counter-balancing  advantage,  of  course,  is  that  the  carbon 
dioxide  which  makes  up  the  remainder  of  the  siderite  can  be 
driven  off  readily  by  heat,  thereby  materially  improving  the 
grade  of  the  ore  at  relatively  little  expense. 

Aside  from  this  natural  and  necessary  lowness  in  iron,  the 
carbonate  ores  usually  carry  considerable  foreign  matter.  I 
some  cases  part  of  the  impurity  is  lime  carbonate;  in  others  it  is 
clayey  matter  (silica  and  alumina) ;  in  still  others  it  is  car- 
bonaceous material. 

The  following  analyses  will  serve  to  give  some  idea  of  the 
composition  of  carbonate  ores  from  various  widely  scattered 
British  localities. 

ANALYSES  OF  IRON  CARBONATE  ORES 


Ferrous  oxide  

35 

L 
37 

i 

36 

2 
14 

41 

5 
03 

i 

46 

1 
53 

i 
41 

65 

Ferric  oxide  

.      .      1 

Q3 

1 

45 

0 

41 

0 

05 

Manganese  oxide 

1 

00 

1 

38 

0 

55 

? 

54 

Silica  

10 

?,?, 

17 

37 

13 

35 

1 

03 

0 

5?, 

Alumina  
Lime 

6 
6 

.95 
63 

6 
2 

.74 
70 

5 
3 

.79 
00 

1 

9 

.22 
44 

0 

K> 

.96 
76 

Magnesia  
Sulphur  
Phosphoric  acid 

3 
0 
1 

.73 
10 
15 

2 
0 
0 

.17 
05 
34 

3 
0 

.36 
70 

1 
0 
0 

.39 
19 
6Q 

3 
0 
0 

.52 
.25 

84 

Carbon  dioxide  
Organic  matter  
Moisture  

22 
1 
9. 

.02 
.20 
80 

26 

2 
1 

.57 
.40 

.77 

28 
0 
1 

.49 
.07 
93 

30 
10 
1 

.77 
.47 
.47 

33 
11 

2 

.08 
.16 
.04 

1.  Bedded  carbonate,  Jurassic  age,  Middlesboro,  England.     Kirchhoff. 

2.  Bedded  carbonate,  Lowmoor,  Yorkshire.     Kendall. 

3.  Bedded  carbonate,  Dowlais,  Wales.     Kendall. 

4.  Blackband  ore,  North  Staffordshire.     Kendall. 

5.  Blackband  ore,  Clyde  basin,  Scotland.     Kendall. 


54  IRON  ORES 

Allowance  must  be  made,  in  looking  over  these  results,  for  the 
fact  that  the  Middlesboro  ore  as  mined  is  partly  hydrated. 
Setting  this  aside,  the  other  obvious  difference  is  between  the 
clayey  carbonates  and  the  carbonaceous  or  blackband  ores. 
Reference  to  the  analyses  will  show  that  the  blackband  ores  are 
normally  far  lower  in  silica  and  alumina  than  are  the  ordinary 
or  clayey  carbonate  ores. 

Origin  of  Marine  Carbonates. — It  has  been  noted  that  the  iron 
carbonate  beds  differ  little  in  origin  from  bog-ore  deposits.  In 
reality,  the  chief  reasons  for  discussing  them  separately  are  the 
somewhat  different  geologic  associations  of  the  carbonate  beds, 
and  their  far  greater  industrial  importance. 

One  general  process  by  which  sedimentary  iron  carbonates 
can  be  formed  is  well  understood,  and  as  its  acceptance  does  not 
involve  postulating  any  unusual  conditions  or  agencies  it  is 
commonly  accepted  as  applying  to  most  carbonate  beds.  It  is 
assumed  that  surface  or  underground  waters,  charged  with  carbon 
dioxide,  pass  over  or  through  rocks  from  which  the  waters  extract 
iron.  This  iron,  carried  in  solution  as  ferrous  bicarbonate, 
finally  reaches  the  neighborhood  of  the  sea.  Here,  in  brackish 
water  swamps  or  lagoons,  and  in  the  presence  of  abundant 
vegetable  matter,  part  of  the  carbon  dioxide  is  abstracted 
from  the  water.  The  deposition  of  ferrous  carbonate  follows. 

When  the  iron  carbonate  is  deposited  in  a  swamp,  it  is  apt  to 
be  precipitated  as  a  separate  bed,  mixed  with  more  or  less  organic 
matter;  and  thus  gives  rise  to  such  deposits  as  the  blackband  ores. 
On  the  other  hand,  when  deposition  takes  place  in  a  less  stagnant 
basin,  clayey  matter  is  apt  to  be  precipitated  along  with  the  iron 
carbonate.  In  this  case  the  carbonate  may  be  originally  laid 
down  as  particles  diffused  through  the  mass  of  clay,  and  the 
later  segregation  of  these  particles  would  yield  the  concretionary 
and  nodular  clayey  carbonates. 

4b.  BASIN  DEPOSITS— IRON  SILICATES 

Iron  silicates  are  used  as  ores  at  only  a  few  points  in  central 
Europe,  and  from  a  purely  industrial  viewpoint  would  not  re- 
quire serious  attention.  But  their  mode  of  deposition  is  a  matter 
of  high  importance,  since  many  of  the  sedimentary  oxide  deposits, 
next  to  be  considered,  have  been  ascribed  to  the  same  general 
method  of  origin.  Some  discussion  of  the  occurrence  and  rela- 
tions of  the  marine  silicates  will  therefore  serve  as  an  introduc- 
tion to  the  more  important  and  complicated  oxide  deposits. 


SEDIMENTARY  OR  BEDDED  DEPOSITS  55 

The  Glauconites  of  the  Ocean  Bottom. — The  discovery  that 
glauconite  deposits  are  now  forming  over  extensive  areas  of  the 
present  ocean  bottom  was  one  of  the  results  of  the  Challenger  ex- 
plorations, and  the  publication  of  these  results  may  be  regarded 
as  the  starting-point  for  all  modern  discussion  of  the  origin  of 
sedimentary  iron  silicates.  The  facts  which  were  observed  in  the 
course  of  the  Challenger's  work,  and  the  explanation  of  these 
facts  given  by  Murray  and  Renard,  have  profoundly  influenced 
later  thought  on  subjects  to  which  neither  facts  nor  theory  were 
particularly  applicable.  Geologists  have  used  them  in  explain- 
ing the  origin  of  the  oolitic  oxides,  apparently  without  noticing 
that  this  was  simply  introducing  an  unnecessary  and  very  com- 
plex element  into  an  already  difficult  problem. 

The  glauconite  found  on  the  present  ocean  bottom  fills  micro- 
scopic shells  and  occurs  fringing  the  shore  lines,  at  a  distance 
beyond  the  immediate  sphere  of  coarse  mechanical  deposition 
and  at  depths  of  100  to  200  fathoms  usually.  Murray  and 
Renard  held  that  the  process  of  glauconite  formation  involved 
the  filling  of  the  small  shells  with  fine  silt  or  mud,  containing 
of  course  some  iron  compounds  as  do  all  muds.  The  organic 
matter  of  the  dead  animal,  and  the  sulphates  contained  in 
sea-water,  furnish  the  chemical  agents  necessary  for  the  subse- 
quent changes.  The  iron  compounds  of  the  mud  are  altered 
first  to  sulphides,  and  later  oxidized  to  ferric  hydroxide.  Simul- 
taneously the  alumina  of  the  mud  is  dissociated  from  the  silica, 
and  the  latter  reacts  upon  the  iron  oxide,  finally  combining  with 
potash  compounds  to  form  the  ultimate  potash-iron  silicate 
glauconite. 

This  explanation  is  technically  sound,  and  fits  all  the  require- 
ments of  the  deposits  which  Murray  and  Renard  had  under 
particular  observation.  It  also  furnishes  a  satisfactory  expla- 
nation of  the  occurrence  of  glauconite  grains  in  shales,  a  feature 
fairly  common  in  Cambrian  and  later  rocks.  How  it  applies,  or 
fails  to  apply,  to  other  greensand  deposits  will  best  be  understood 
if  we  describe  briefly  some  of  the  conditions  which  have  to  be  met. 

The  Cretaceous  Greensands  of  New  Jersey. — The  glauconite 
deposits  occurring  in  the  Cretaceous  rocks  of  New  Jersey  have 
been  selected  as  a  basis  for  discussion,  because  very  definite  data 
are  available  with  regard  to  their  stratigraphic  and  chemical 
characteristics. 


56  IRON  ORES 

In  the  Cretaceous  series  of  New  Jersey,  whose  total  thickness 
may  be  700  feet  or  thereabout,  there  are  three  very  definite  and 
thick  beds  of  greensand  and  several  beds  of  clayey  or  sandy 
greensands.  The  purer  greensand  beds  range,  individually, 
from  10  to  50  feet  in  thickness;  the  three  beds  together  give 
an  average  total  thickness  of  perhaps  90  feet.  If  we  include 
the  greensand  contained  in  the  less  pure  beds,  it  might  be  within 
limits  to  say  that  during  Cretaceous  time  over  125  feet  of  pure 
greensand  was  deposited  all  over  the  New  Jersey  Cretaceous 
area. 

So  far  as  can  be  determined  by  drilling,  the  greensand  forma- 
tions extend  seaward  at  least  to  the  present  coast-line  and 
probably  beyond.  Taking  into  account  only  the  present  extent, 
therefore,  we  have  to  deal  with  an  area  some  120  miles  in  length 
and  40  miles  in  width.  The  thickest  of  the  three  greensand  beds, 
deposited  over  this  area,  required  approximately  75  thousand 
million  tons  of  iron  oxide  to  account  for  the  greensand  which  it 
contains.  The  total  greensand  in  the  Cretaceous  series,  on  the 
same  basis,  may  have  required  some  250  thousand  million  tons 
of  ferric  oxide.  When  thjese  facts  are  once  brought  into  view,  it 
becomes  obvious  that  the  problem  of  greensand  deposition  in 
quantities  of  such  magnitude  involves  somewhat  different  factors 
from  those  which  might  account  for  the  formation  of  isolated 
glauconite  grains  in  a  bed  of  mud. 

One  point  in  regard  to  the  real  composition  of  these  iron  silicates 
may  be  worthy  of  consideration.  It  is  generally  assumed  that 
the  small  dark-colored  granules  are  homogeneous,  and  the 
current  analyses  of  glauconite  and  other  silicates  are  based  on 
this  supposition.  My  own  experimental  work  on  glauconite, 
which  has  been  rather  extensive,  tends  toward  another  conclusion. 
Apparently,  whenever  a  greensand  granule  is  dissociated  care- 
fully, it  will  yield  a  thin  shell  of  silica,  enclosing  or  enclosed  by 
the  green  iron  silicate.  If  this  turns  out  to  be  the  normal  con- 
dition, we  must  evidently  make  allowance  for  the  enclosed 
silica  in  all  analyses.  It  might  easily  be  true  that  of  the  50  per- 
cent or  so  of  silica  which  is  supposed  to  be  a  component  of 
glauconite,  less  than  35  percent  is  really  part  of  the  glauconite 
mineral,  the  remainder  being  merely  an  associated  material.  In 
that  case  the  iron  silicate  as  precipitated  would  really  be  richer 
in  iron  than  has  been  usually  considered. 


SEDIMENTARY  OR  BEDDED  DEPOSITS          57 

Aside  from  the  greensand  deposits,  the  other  Cretaceous  rocks 
of  this  area  are  mostly  clays  and  sands.  Limey  beds  are  rare; 
and  with  one  local  exception  no  distinct  and  separate  bed  of 
limestone  exists.  On  the  other  hand,  all  the  Cretaceous  rocks 
include  large  quantities  of  shell  matter.  The  greensand  beds 
themselves  are  made  up  largely  of  glauconite  granules,  with 
considerable  quartz  sand,  some  fine  clay,  and  some  shell  matter. 

So  far  as  the  land  conditions  which  accompanied  these  Cretaceous 
deposits  are  known,  it  may  be  said  that  low-lying  shores,  with  a 
deeply  weathered  land  surface,  faced  the  Cretaceous  sea.  No 
trace  of  contemporaneous  volcanic  or  other  igneous  activity  exists. 

Reverting  to  the  quantitative  data  which  have  been  supplied 
in  preceding  paragraphs,  it  can  be  seen  that  an  immense  tonnage 
of  iron  oxide  reached  the  sea-bottom  in  one  form  or  another. 
If  this  were  in  the  form  of  iron  disseminated  through  mud,  then 
something  over  three  million  million  tons  of  such  mud  were  abso- 
lutely leached  of  their  iron  to  provide  sufficient  to  form  these 
Cretaceous  green-sands.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  not  the 
slightest  reason  to  believe  that  this  amount  of  mud  was  deposited 
in  the  space  now  occupied  by  the  greensand;  and  the  clays 
which  overlie  the  greensands  have  not  been  leached  at  all,  but 
contain  normal  iron  contents. 

In  order  to  adequately  explain  the  relations,  we  must  assume 
that  the  original  deposit  was  not  a  clay  containing  disseminated 
iron,  but  a  relatively  pure,  fine-grained  iron  sediment,  carrying 
down  with  it  a  smaller  proportion  of  clayey  matter.  A  deposit 
of  this  type,  reacting  with  organic  matter,  could  furnish  greensand 
deposits  of  the  size  and  character  which  are  now  found. 

As  to  the  cause  of  this  exceptionally  rich  iron  deposition,  there 
are  available  two  possibilities,  which  may  be  either  alternative 
or  supplementary.  The  waters  of  the  basin  may  have  been, 
temporarily,  exceptionally  high  in  iron  content;  or  an  excep- 
tionally powerful  precipitating  agent  may  have  been  at  work. 
Drainage  from  the  Triassic  areas  of  sandstone  and  trap  might 
have  supplied  iron-rich  waters;  climatic  conditions  may  have 
favored  precipitation  by  evaporation;  or  changes  in  the  character 
of  the  waters  entering  the  basin  may  have  brought  about  de- 
position through  chemical  reactions.  The  matter  may  be 
dropped  at  this  point,  though  it  will  be  necessary  to  recur  to  it 
when  the  marine  oxide  ores  are  under  discussion. 


58  IRON  ORES 

Silicate  Ores  of  Europe. — The  silicate  ores  of  central  Europe 
do  not  offer  any  difficulties  beyond  those  encountered  in  discuss- 
ing the  greensands  of  the  New  Jersey  Cretaceous.  In  fact  they 
are  less  difficult  in  one  way,  for  the  beds  are  far  thinner  and  less 
extensive  areally.  Further  than  that,  they  are  associated  with 
beds  of  oolitic  oxide  ores,  so  that  the  proof  as  to  direct  iron 
deposition  is  strengthened. 

These  European  silicate  deposits  include  thin  beds  of  the 
minerals  thuringite  and  chamosite,  whose  composition  has  been 
discerned  in  Chapter  II. 

40.    BASIN  DEPOSITS— IRON  OXIDES. 

The  ore  deposits  included  under  this  particular  sub-class  com- 
prise the  most  extensive  ore  reserves  now  known;  for  they  in- 
clude the  Clinton  Ores  of  the  southern  and  eastern  United  States 
and  eastern  Canada;  the  Wabana  ores  of  Newfoundland;  the 
minette  ores  of  Lorraine  and  Luxemburg;  and  the  Mirias  Geraes 
ores  of  Brazil;  together  with  numerous  less  important  deposits. 
In  tonnage  they  make  up  over  half  the  known  iron  ores  of  the 
world.  So  far  as  the  question  of  origin  is  concerned,  the  Lake 
Superior  ores  might  also  be  included  here,  for  most  of  the  ques- 
tions which  arise  concerning  the  origin  of  the  minette  and  Clin- 
ton ores  would  also  come  to  the  front  if  we  went  back  far  enough 
in  the  history  of  the  Lake  ores.  Because  of  their  later  alteration 
and  re-concentration,  however,  the  origin  of  the  Lake  Superior 
ores  will  be  discussed  elsewhere. 

Ores  of  the  type  here  considered  are  so  important  and  so  widely 
distributed  that  little  attention  has  been  paid  to  their  origin  and 
general  geologic  relations.  Much  attention  is  paid  to  the  sub- 
ject of  igneous  ores,  which  may  or  may  not  really  exist;  and  ex- 
tensive discussion  is  based  on  the  phenomena  of  contact  deposits, 
which  were  apparently  formed  to  be  the  bane  of  both  engineer  and 
furnaceman.  Such  literature  as  does  exist  relative  to  these  vast 
basin  deposits  of  hematite  and  brown  ore  shows  certain  limita- 
tions; it  is  based  largely  upon  work  with  the  microscope,  which 
gives  delicate  but  limited  results,  and  it  is  contributed  very  largely 
by  paleontologists,  who  tend  to  regard  iron-ore  beds  chiefly  as 
burial  grounds  for  interesting  fossils.  Under  these  circumstances 
little  apology  need  be  offered  if,  in  the  present  volume,  the  bal- 


SEDIMENTARY  OR  BEDDED  DEPOSITS  59 

ance  swings  over-low  on  the  other  side,  and  perhaps  too  much 
attention  is  paid  to  a  discussion  of  structure  and  general  geologic 
relations. 

On  certain  points  there  is  substantial  agreement  among  all  the 
ores  included  in  this  sub-class;  on  others  there  is  more  or  less  wide 
variation.  All  of  the  deposits  are  in  true  sedimentary  beds, 
associated  with  various  other  sedimentary  rocks.  The  beds 
vary  in  thickness  and  number;  and  the  ores  vary  in  grade.  In 
mineral  character  they  are  mostly  hematites,  though  the  minette 
ores  of  Lorraine  and  Luxemburg  are  hydrated  or  brown  ores. 

In  discussing  the  associations  and  general  relations  of  the 
oxide  or  "oolitic"  ores,  the  bulk  of  the  illustrative  material  is 
naturally  drawn  from  the  Clinton  ores  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  and  the  earlier  Or4pvician  ores  of  Newfoundland.  With 
the  Clinton  ores  I  am  personally  familiar  throughout  most  of  their 
range,  and  I  have  spent  some  time  on  a  study  of  the  Newfound- 
land deposits.  For  local  details  there  are  also  available  the  very 
careful  measurements  by  Burchard  of  various  southern  Clinton 
ore  beds,  and  the  excellent  data  secured  by  the  Nova  Scotia  Steel 
engineers  at  Wabana.  For  the  Luxemburg-Lorraine  deposits 
there  is,  of  course,  a  large  mass  of  published  information.  With 
regard  to  the  ores  of  the  Minas  Geraes  district  of  Brazil,  which, 
according  to  several  eminent  geologists,  fall  in  this  class,  less  can 
be  said.  The  reports  available  on  this  district  deal  rather  with 
the  ores  themselves  than  with  the  details  of  their  stratigraphy  and 
associations. 

Extent  of  the  Deposits. — Perhaps  the  most  satisfactory  start- 
ing-point for  a  discussion  of  the  general  relations  and  origin  of 
these  ores  will  be  to  attempt  to  secure  some  definite  idea  as  to 
the  extent  of  the  individual  ore  beds,  and  of  the  general  areas 
of  ore  deposition.  Whenever  we  have  sufficient  data,  as  is  the 
case  regarding  the  Clinton  ores,  we  find  that  these  are  two  very 
different  matters. 

Taking  up  first  the  extent  of  individual  ore  beds,  it  is  found  that 
these  iron  ores  are  developed  on  about  the  same  scale  as  coal 
seams;  but  that  so  far  a's  known  they  do  not  show  at  the  maxi- 
mum the  continuity  exhibited  by  some  of  our  coal  beds,  or  the 
thickness  shown  by  many  salt  beds.  The  Big  Seam  of  Clinton 
iron  ore  in  the  Birmingham  district  of  Alabama  is  traceable  as  a 
geologic  unit  for  perhaps  50  miles  from  northeast  to  southwest, 


60  IRON  ORES 

and  has  been  developed  for  a  width  of  several  miles.  Beyond 
these  limits  proof  is  either  lacking  or  indefinite;  but  we  may 
fairly  assume  that  at  one  particular  time  a  basin  50  miles  long 
and  some  10  miles  wide  was  being  filled  with  iron  oxide.  This 
filling  amounted  to  some  30  feet  in  thickness  at  the  deepest 
portion  of  the  basin;  it  may  have  averaged  10  feet  over  its  entire 
extent.  After  allowing  for  the  low  grade  of  much  of  the  ore,  the 
fact  remains  that  some  five  thousand  million  tons  of  iron  oxide 
were  laid  down  in  a  continuous  deposition  at  one  particular  place 
and  time.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  introduces  factors  which  are 
absent  when  small  bog  deposits  are  considered. 

The  Big  Seam  basin  was  large,  but  the  tonnage  laid  down  is 
not  by  any  means  unique.  The  Wabana  basin  in  Newfoundland, 
so  far  as  can  be  determined  now,  probably  had  a  continuous 
deposition  amounting  to  seven  thousand  million  tons  of  iron 
oxide.  The  Brazilian  area  may  have  shown  even  larger  in- 
stances of  individual  deposits;  and  Lorraine  is  on  almost  the 
same  scale. 

But  we  can  go  much  further  than  this,  in  two  ways.  First, 
almost  every  district  shows  not  one  but  several  or  many  ore  beds; 
second,  during  any  given  ore-depositing  period  the  general  area 
affected  was  much  larger  than  is  now  considered  in  any  single 
district.  As  regards  the  first  point,  reference  to  the  descriptions 
of  the  various  districts  in  Chapters  XVIII  and  XXI  will  show  that 
they  exhibit  from  three  to  ten  or  more  ore  beds,  even  limiting 
consideration  to  those  now  commercially  workable.  As  regards 
the  second  point,  we  must  consider  that  the  ore  deposition  during 
Clinton  time  in  the  southern  and  eastern  United  States  took 
place  over  a  general  area  some  seven  hundred  miles  in  length  and 
at  least  fifty  miles  in  width.  It  is,  of  course,  improbable  that,  at 
any  given  moment,  ore  deposition  was  taking  place  simultane- 
ously over  all  or  any  large  fraction  of  this  area;  but  the  figures 
will  throw  some  light  on  the  general  extent  of  the  problems  in- 
volved. It  can  be  seen  that  purely  local  causes  cannot  be  in- 
voked to  explain  the  origin  of  ores  which  occur  in  such  large 
individual  basins,  which  were  likely  to  occur  over  such  vast 
areas,  and  which  recurred  in  such  frequent  fashion. 

Associated  Rocks. — It  has  been  noted  that  the  iron-ore  beds 
form  one  element  in  large  rock  series;  and  that  they  are  associated 
and  interbedded  with  sedimentary  rocks  of  various  types. 


SEDIMENTARY  OR  BEDDED  DEPOSITS 


61 


In  different  periods  and  in  different  areas  the  rocks  varied 
considerably,  but  in  at  least  the  Wabana  and  Clinton  series  there 
is  a  certain  amount  of  similarity  in  the  character  of  the  sedimen- 
tation. The  most  striking  features  in  each  case  are  the  abun- 
dance of  shales  associated  with  the  ores,  the  relative  scarcity  of 
limestone  beds,  and  the  frequent  recurrence  of  the  various  types  in 
a  thin-bedded  series  of  alternations. 

For  the  following  section  which  illustrates  very  remarkably 
both  the  frequency  and  the  character  of  the  alternations,  I  am 
indebted  to  Messrs.  Cantley  and  Chambers  of  the  Nova  Scotia 
Steel  &  Coal  Co.  The  section  starts  some  distance  above  the 
main  or  Dominion  ore  seam  in  the  Wabana  trough  (Newfound- 
land), passes  through  it  at  one  of  its  thicker  phases,  and  terminates 
some  distance  below  it.  It  may  be  noted  in  passing  that  the  seam 
here  shows  well  over  20  feet  of  clean  ore,  but  at  present  we  are 
concerned  more  closely  with  the  way  in  which  thin  alternations 
of  shales,  sandstone  and  ore  are  exemplified  by  this  particular 
section. 

Feet     Inches 

Shale 0  1 

Ore 0  6 

Shale 0  1 

Ore 0  4 

Shale 0  1 

Ore 0  5 

Shale 0  2 

Ore 1  4 

Shale 0  2 

Ore 1  9 

Sandstone,  ferruginous.  0  1 

Ore 1  2 

Sandstone 0  1 

Lean  ore 0  8 

Shale 0  9 

Sandstone 0  4 

Ore  and  shale  mixed..  1  8 

Shale 1  0 

Sandstone 6  1 

Shale 0  5 

Ore 1  2 

Sandstone 1  8 

Instances  bearing  on  the  same  point  could  be  multiplied  to  any 
desired  extent,  for  careful  examination  of  the  sections  shown 


Feet 

Inches 

Shales  

25 

3 

Iron  pyrite  

0 

3 

Shale  

2 

0 

Iron  pyrite  

0 

2 

Shale  

1 

3 

Iron  pyrite  

0 

6 

Sandstone  

4 

2 

Lean  ore  

0 

2 

Sandstone  

0 

6 

Lean  ore  

0 

2 

Shale  and  sandstone  

1 

6 

Lean  ore  

0 

3 

Sandstone  

1 

8 

Ore  

0 

5 

Shale  

0 

2 

Ore..  

7 

0 

Shale  

0 

1 

Ore  

6 

10 

Sandstone,  ferruginous. 

0 

2 

Ore  

0 

4 

Shale  

0 

9 

Ore.. 

0 

4 

62  IRON  ORES 

in  all  of  our  own  Clinton  ore  districts  shows  the  same  type  of 
occurrence. 

Related  Phenomena. — Among  the  related  phenomena  which 
help  to  throw  some  light  on  the  conditions  surrounding  the 
formation  of  these  ore-bodies,  are  the  occurrence  of  fossil  organ- 
isms, of  ripple-marks,  and  of  mud-cracks. 

Fossil  shells,  corals,  crinoids,  etc.,  occur  not  only  in  the  beds 
associated  with  the  ores,  but  at  times  in  the  ore  beds  themselves. 
In  this  latter  case  the  fossils  may  be  partly  or  completely  replaced 
by  iron  oxide;  and  in  some  instances  the  bulk  of  an  ore  bed  is  made 
up  of  ore  formed  in  this  way.  At  other  times  the  fossil  is  merely 
coated  with  a  layer  of  iron  oxide. 

The  fossils  associated  with  the  ore  series  are  of  marine  type;  and 
they  are  not  notably  different  in  type  and  size  from  examples  of 
the  same  species  occurring  elsewhere.  The  ores  must  therefore 
have  been  deposited  in  marine  basins,  and  these  basins  could  not 
have  been  entirely  or  steadily  cut  off  from  communication  with  the 
open  sea. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  direct  evidence  that  the  basins 
were  very  shallow,  and  subject  to  frequent  small  oscillations  of 
level.  The  shale  beds  associated  with  the  ores  often  show  ripple- 
marks  and  mud-cracks;  and  at  Wabana  the  floor  of  the  Dominion 
seam  is  similarly  marked. 

Structure  of  the  Ores. — The  marine  oxide  ores  differ  greatly  in 
structure  in  different  regions,  in  different  beds,  and  even  in 
different  portions  of  the  same  bed.  This  fact  has  not  been  given 
sufficient  attention  in  the  past,  and  to  its  neglect  are  due  some  of 
the  most  interesting  controversial  writings  on  the  subject  of 
origin.  It  is  perhaps  a  natural  tendency  of  human  nature  to 
assume  that  the  only  possible  mode  of  origin  is  that  which  the 
author  happens  to  have  studied. 

As  regards  internal  structure,  we  may  distinguish  a  number  of 
general  types  which  we  are  likely  to  encounter  in  any  ore  field, 
though  some  are  far  commoner  and  more  important  than  others. 
There  are,  commonest  and  best  known,  the  oolitic  ores,  in  which 
the  iron  ore  occurs  as  small  spherical  or  flattened  forms  consisting 
sometimes  of  a  coating  of  iron  oxide  surrounding  a  central  grain 
of  silica;  and  sometimes  a  fairly  homogeneous  oolite  of  iron  oxide 
with  or  without  silica.  The  individual  oolites  are  often  held 
together  by  a  cement  of  lime  carbonate  or  clay.  Second  in 


SEDIMENTARY  OR  BEDDED  DEPOSITS 


63 


importance  are  the  fossil  ores,  in  which  fragments  of  fossils  are 
replaced  by  iron  oxide.     Third  in  extent,  but  primary  in  their 


FIG.  5. — Types  of  Clinton  sedimentary  hematites. 

Upper   figure   oolitic   ore;  lower   figure   hematite   replacing   and   filling 
between  fossil  fragments. 

geologic  significance,  we  find  ores  in  which  the  iron  oxide  is 
spread  merely  as  a  thin  coating  over  a  quartz  grain  or  pebble,  or 
in  which  it  occurs  as  a  fine-grained  iron  mud. 


64  IRON  ORES 

From  studies  of  the  two  types  first  named — the  oolitic  and  the 
fossil  ores,  several  divergent  theories  of  ore  origin  have  been 
developed.  According  to  one  well-known  theory,  the  ores 
originate  mostly  by  the  replacement  of  fossil  fragments  on  the 
floor  of  the  basin  in  which  these  fragments  lay.  According  to 
other  theories,  calcareous  or  siliceous  oolites  were  first  formed,  and 
later  these  were  completely  or  partly  replaced  by  iron  oxide. 

Looking  at  the  matter  very  generally,  it  would  seem  fair  to 
suggest  that  investigators  have  concentrated  their  attention 
upon  local  and  accidental  circumstances,  and  have  overlooked 
the  more  basal  phenomenon.  The  element  which  is  universal  and 
persistent  is  that,  during  certain  periods,  iron  oxide  was  actually 
precipitated  from  water;  the  accidental  element  arises  from  the 
material  which,  in  any  given  place,  this  iron  oxide  combined  with, 
coated  or  replaced.  Sand  grains  and  fossil  fragments  must  occur 
in  every  ocean  basin,  and  in  attempting  to  explain  the  origin  of 
these  oxide  ores  we  must  seek  a  more  general  reason  for  the  heavy 
precipitation  of  iron  oxide  in  these  particular  beds. 

Composition  of  the  Original  Precipitate. — From  the  industrial 
standpoint  the  point  of  chief  interest  is,  of  course,  the  actual 
bulk  composition  of  the  ores  as  they  now  exist;  and  this  will  be 
discussed  in  more  detail  in  the  later  chapters  dealing  with  the 
local  occurrence  of  the  various  ores.  For  the  purposes  of  the 
present  chapter  it  will  be  of  interest  to  attempt  to  form  some  idea 
of  the  composition  of  the  iron  sediment  as  originally  precipitated, 
and  before  the  oolites  or  granules  were  cemented  together  by 
lime  or  other  foreign  matter. 

At  first  sight  it  might  seem  as  if  such  a  line  of  inquiry  could 
not  possibly  give  satisfactory  results,  but  on  investigation  it  will 
be  found  that  many  of  the  difficulties  disappear  when  they  are 
faced,  and  that  the  final  results  are  sufficiently  close  to  be  very 
serviceable. 

A  number  of  complete  analyses  of  sedimentary  oxide  ores  are 
on  record  and  some  of  these  relate  to  ores  which,  for  one  reason 
or  another,  may  fairly  be  considered  as  approaching  in  com- 
position the  original  iron  deposits.  The  Wabana  ores,  for  ex- 
ample, have  relatively  little  cementing  material  included  in  their 
bulk;  while  in  the  southern  United  States  the  leached  or  "soft" 
ores  have  been  cleared  of  their  cementing  matter  by  natural 
processes.  Unfortunately  no  Lorraine  analyses  fit  for  this  use 


SEDIMENTARY  OR  BEDDED  DEPOSITS  65 

are  at  my  disposal,  and  the  Brazilian  ores  can  be  omitted  for 
other  reasons. 

ANALYSES  OF  SEDIMENTARY  IRON  DEPOSITS 

12345 

Ferricoxide 76.94     75.46     73.53     76.77     73.33 

Ferrous  oxide 0.10       0.69       0.46       0.19 

(Metallic  iron) 53.86     51.12     52.11     54.15     51.60 

Manganese 0.65       0.31       0.26       0.15       0.23 

Phosphorus 0.85       0.47       0.51       0.648     0.22 

Sulphur 0.018     0.02       0.11       0.086     0.14 

Silica 9.48       7.62     10.97     10.63     16.70 

Alumna..  3.55       4.31       6.94       5.64       6.62 


Lime  

1.81 

0.40 

2.28 

2.25 

0.27 

Magnesia  
Potash  
Soda.  . 

0.84 
n.  d. 
n.  d. 

0.47 
0.30 
0.13 

0.73 

n.  d. 
n.  d. 

0.52 
0.17 
0.01 

0.22 
n.  d. 
n.  d. 

Carbon  dioxide 4.32       0.32     0.07         0.09       0.07 

Combined  water 4.32       9.35     2.96         1.71       1.53 

1.  Wabana  ore,  Newfoundland;  analysis  quoted  by  Cantley. 
2:  Clinton  ore,  Chamberlain,  Tenn.;  G.  Steiger,  anal.,  Bull.  16,  Tenn. 
Geol.  Sur. 

3.  Clinton  ore,  Rhea  Springs,  Tenn;  10th  Census  U.  S.,  Vol.  XV. 

4.  Clinton  ore,  Attalla,  Ala;  10th  Census  U.  S.,  Vol.  XV.' 

5.  Clinton  ore,  Birmingham,  Ala.;  10th  Census  U.  S.,  Vol.  XV. 

The  analyses  presented  in  the  preceding  table  are  surprisingly 
concordant,  in  view  of  the  facts  that  they  cover  ores  of  different 
geologic  ages  and  from  widely  separated  localities.  As  to  their 
results,  it  is  obvious  that  carbon  dioxide  may  be  disregarded 
as  representing  incomplete  leaching;  and  that  combined  water 
may  also  be  set  aside,  as  representing  recent  hydration.  The 
lime,  magnesia,  soda  and  potash  are  small  and  variable,  and 
are  of  interest  chiefly  as  negative  indications.  The  sulphur  is 
variable,  for  as  elsewhere  explained  it  is  principally  confined  to 
certain  layers. 

The  main  components  of  the  iron  deposit  are  evidently  iron 
oxide,  silica  and  alumina;  which  if  combined  water  and  carbon 
dioxide  be  allowed  for,  make  up  together  from  93  to  98  percent 
of  the  total  mass  of  the  ore.  They  can  be  regarded  as  the  three 

5 


66  IRON  ORES 

essential  constituents.  There  is  no  proof  that  lime  carbonate  was 
present  originally  in  oolitic  form;  if  so,  it  has  been  removed  com- 
pletely, and  was  not  re-deposited  anywhere  in  the  series.  So 
far  as  we  can  judge  from  this  line  of  investigation,  the  original 
deposition  was  in  the  form  of  a  finely  divided  iron  oxide,  chiefly 
precipitated  from  solution,  which  in  its  descent  trapped  and 
carried  down  with  it  a  certain  amount  of  finely  divided  clayey 
matter. 

Local  conditions  determined  the  details  of  the  process  and  of 
the  results.  In  some  places  the  descending  precipitate  fell  upon 
masses  of  shell  fragments,  which  it  coated  or  replaced;  in  others 
it  coated  sand  grains;  in  a  few  basins  it  may  have  taken  a  truly 
oolitic  form  or  have  replaced  earlier  oolites.  As  to  the  physical, 
topographic  and  chemical  conditions  which  caused  or  favored 
such  exceptionally  heavy  precipitation  of  a  fairly  pure  iron  oxide 
the  proof  must  be  sought  in  other  directions. 

Summary  of  Relations. — Having  discussed  various  phases  of 
the  structural  relations  and  associations  of  the  basin  ores  in 
detail,  it  will  be  well  to  summarize  the  matter  before  going 
further.  In  examining  the  ores  of  any  particular  age  and 
district  we  commonly  find  that  the  general  area  of  ore  deposition 
has  been  very  large,  and  that  even  the  individual  ore  beds  are 
sometimes  very  thick  and  extensive.  Further  than  this,  there 
are  commonly  a  number  of  ore  beds  scattered  through  the  rocks 
of  the  ore-bearing  series.  These  ore  beds  are  separated  by,  and 
associated  with  other  rocks,  which  frequently  occur  in  thin  alter- 
nations. These  accompanying  rocks  are  predominantly  fine- 
grained shales;  sandstone  and  limestone  also  occur,  but  much 
less  frequently  than  shale;  and  there  is  usually  more  sandstone 
than  limestone.  The  entire  series  may  make  up  several  hundred 
feet  in  thickness,  and  through  it  the  shales  are  usually  higher  in 
iron  than  ordinary  clays  and  shales;  and  the  sandstones  are 
commonly  ferruginous  to  a  marked  extent.  The  entire  series 
therefore  marks  a  period  during  which  all  the  deposits  were  of 
high  iron  content,  and  during  which  at  recurrent  intervals  beds 
of  exceptionally  high  iron  content — the  iron  ores — were  laid 
down. 

Marine  fossils  occur  in  all  the  rocks,  and  even  in  the  iron  ore 
itself.  The  shale  beds  often  show  ripple-marks  and  mud-cracks; 
and  in  places  the  floor  of  an  ore  bed  shows  similar  markings. 


41 

SEDIMENTARY  OR  BEDDED  DEPOSITS  67 

The  ore  itself  may  be  of  truly  oolitic  type,  it  may  be  a  ferriferous 
coating  on  sand  grains  or  quartz  pebbles,  and  in  places  it  is  a 
filling  or  replacement  of  fossils.  It  is  normally  high  in  phosphorus 
and  rather  high  in  sulphur.  It  is  also  commonly  higher  in 
alumina,  as  compared  with  silica,  than  are  most  other  iron  ores. 
When  a  layer  of  iron  pyrite  occurs,  it  is  not  in  the  middle  of  an 
ore  bed,  but  at  its  top  or  bottom.  There  are  practically  ho 
nodules  of  pyrite,  or  of  unaltered  iron  carbonate,  within  the  ore 
beds. 

All  of  these  facts  must  be  taken  into  consideration  in  attempting 
to  formulate  any  adequate  theory  of  origin  for  the  marine  oxide 
ores. 

The  Question  of  Origin. — The  facts  in  the  case  having  been 
separately  stated,  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether  or  not  they  will, 
considered  together,  throw  any  light  on  the  origin  of  the  marine 
deposits  of  oxide  ores.  By  keeping  strictly  to  the  general 
conditions,  and  avoiding  purely  local  and  accidental  phenomena 
it  seems  as  if  some  progress  might  be  made  in  that  direction. 

There  are  obviously  several  factors  which  must  have  co- 
operated in  order  that  an  ore  deposit  could  be  formed,  possessing 
the  associations,  the  structure  and  the  composition  which  have 
been  described  as  occurring  in  most  of  the  deposits  of  the  class 
under  consideration.  Put  into  the  most  general  wording,  there 
must  have  been  a  supply  of  iron  in  solution,  an  agency  which 
caused  its  precipitation,  and  a  favorable  place  for  the  deposit 
to  form.  For  convenience  these  three  factors  will  be  considered 
in  the  reverse  order  to  that  in  which  they  have  just  been  named. 

(1)  The  structural  relations  of  the  deposits,  and  the  character 
of  their  associated  rocks,  imply  that  the  deposition  must  have 
taken  place  in  long,  narrow   basins,  probably  parallel  to   the 
coast-line,  generally  shallow,  subject  to  frequent  oscillations  of 
level ;  and  probably  at  least  part  of  the  time  entirely  cut  off  from 
the  access  of  sea-water. 

(2)  In  a  basin  of  the  type  described  dissolved  iron  compounds 
would  be  carried  by  the  sea- water;  and  additional  supplies  might 
be  derived  from  streams  feeding  directly  into  the  basin  from  the 
landward  side.     The  water  of  the  basin  probably  carried  more 
iron  than  average  sea-water  of  the  present  day,  for  otherwise 
sufficient  evaporation  to  produce  iron  deposits  would  normally 
have  resulted  in  a  concurrent  or  later  deposition  of  other  salts. 


68  IRON  ORES 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  we  can  not  assume  that  at  the  outset 
these  basins  were  filled  with  a  very  rich  iron  solution,  for  the 
character  of  the  fossils  does  not  bear  out  that  conclusion. 
Further  than  this,  we  must  allow  for  the  possibility,  which  in 
some  instances  seems  to  be  almost  a  certainty,  that  in  part  at 
least  the  iron  oxide  was  present  in  suspension  as  a  fine-grained 
iron  mud. 

One  additional  fragment  of  evidence  may  be  noted.  The 
clayey  matter  which  was  precipitated  with  the  iron  oxide,  as  well 
as  the  shaley  material  which  is  interstratified  with  the  ore  beds, 
has  certain  points  of  interest.  In  general  all  of  these  claye}^ 
sediments  seem  to  be  somewhat  higher  in  alumina  and  iron,  and 
lower  in  silica,  than  normal  shales  and  clays.  They  can  hardly 
have  been  derived  from  freshly  weathered  granitic  or  similar 
rocks,  but  point  rather  to  derivation  from  deeply  weathered 
limestones  or  basic  igneous  rocks.  If  the  latter,  the  relative 
scarcity  of  limestone  earlier  in  the  ore  series  is  remarkable,  for  the 
weathering  of  fresh  basic  rocks  would  certainly  yield  an  abun- 
dance of  lime  in  solution.  So,  in  the  last  analysis,  we  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  there  is  no  absolute  necessity  for  postulating 
concurrent  igneous  activity  of  any  sort,  though  that  may  well 
enough  have  occurred.  The  more  probable  source  of  both  the 
iron-charged  waters  and  the  fine-grained  clayey  sediments  was 
from  a  low-lying,  deeply  weathered  land  surface,  draining  down 
to  a  shallow  sea. 

(3)  Whatever  the  character  of  the  water  may  have  been  at  the 
outset,  some  agency  was  available  which  sufficed  to  precipitate 
the  iron  in  the  form  of  oxide.  So  far  as  the  history  of  the  deposits 
can  be  made  out  from  the  sedimentary  record,  the  agency  most 
likley  to  produce  this  effect  was  evaporation  of  the  basins,  at 
least  to  the  point  of  iron  deposition.  We  do  know  that  the 
basins  were  dried  at  intervals,  and  then  refilled;  so  that  iron  ores 
are  covered  by  shales  and  sandstones.  After  each  period  of 
partial  or  complete  dessication  there  was  a  submergence,  a 
temporary  cessation  of  iron  deposition,  and  a  deposition  of 
(usually)  fine-grained  clay  or  (more  rarely)  fine  sands. 

It  is,  of  course,  possible  enough  that  organic  matter  played  some 
part,  in  some  areas,  in  the  matter;  and  that  locally  the  composi- 
tion and  character  of  the  iron  deposits  may  have  been  seriously 
influenced  in  this  way.  In  places  there  was  undoubtedly  replace- 


SEDIMENTARY  OR  BEDDED  DEPOSITS  69 

ment  by  iron  oxide  of  shell  matter  on  the  sea-bottom;  at  other 
points  or  in  other  periods  there  may  have  been  deposition  of  the 
glauconite  type;  it  is  even  possible  that  replacement  of  originally 
calcareous  oolites  may  have  occurred  in  some  ore  basins.  But, 
after  all, these  are  merely  secondary  and  local  phenomena.  Such 
infiltrations  and  replacements  could  not  have  taken  place  unless 
an  abnormal  iron  supply  were  present. 

Two  widely  variant  types  of  Clinton  ore,  differing  greatly  not 
only  from  each  other  but  from  all  commercial  ores,  may  be  noted 
as  tending  to  throw  some  light  on  what  extreme  products  could 
be  made  in  the  Clinton  seas.  One  occurs  in  West  Virginia,  where 
we  spent  considerable  time  in  tracing  back  some  very  remarkable 
float  ore.  When  the  original  location  was  discovered,  the  ore  was 
found  to  occur  in  several  very  thin  beds,  with  no  reason  to 
believe  that  they  had  been  formed  except  as  sediments,  and  with 
no  trace  of  later  alteration  and  enrichment.  They  were  unwork- 
able, for  the  thickest  bed  was  only  some  8  inches,  and  the 
total  thickness  of  the  several  beds  did  not  amount  to  over  a 
foot.  But  the  ore  itself  was  a  steely  blue  hematite,  grading  from 
60  to  65  percent  metallic  iron,  and  well  below  the  Bessemer  limit 
in  phosphorus.  At  the  other  extreme  of  the  series  we  may  place 
certain  beds  in  the  Clinton  rocks  of  eastern  Alabama,  where  quartz 
pebbles  up  to  several  inches  in  diameter  are  coated  with  relatively 
pure  iron  oxide.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  one  instance  suggests 
that  a  very  pure  and  concentrated  iron  solution  was  available  in 
some  basins;  the  other,  that  organic  action,  oolites  and  fossil  frag- 
ments were  not  necessarily  a  part  of  the  process. 

Typical  Deposits. — The  iron-ore  fields  of  the  world  offer  three 
examples  of  iron  oxide  deposition  on  a  truly  enormous  scale, 
with  a  possible  fourth  example  of  even  greater  extent.  The  three 
well-determined  examples  are  the  (1)  Clinton  ore  deposits  of  the 
eastern  and  southern  United  States;  (2)  the  minette  ore  deposits 
of  the  Lorraine-Luxembourg  area  in  Europe,  and  (3)  the  Wab- 
ana  basin  of  Newfoundland.  The  fourth  doubtful  example, 
according  to  some  views,  would  be  the  Brazilian  area. 

Of  the  well-known  examples,  the  original  deposition  left  workable 
commercial  ores  in  the  three  cases  cited  while  in  the  Lake  Superior 
district  the  ores  as  originally  deposited  were  too-lean  to  be  com- 
mercially available,  but  through  subsequent  natural  concentration 
these  original  lean  ores  have  given  rise  to  workable  deposits. 


70  IRON  ORES 

The  amount  of  iron  involved  in  these  great  basin  deposits  is 
very  large.  I  have  shown  elsewhere,  for  example,  that  in  the 
southern  United  States  the  Clinton  beds  contained  a  total  of 
over  86  thousand  million  tons  of  ore,  equivalent  to  over  26  thou- 
sand million  tons  of  metallic  iron.  If  all  of  this  iron  were  derived 
from  the  leaching  of  rocks  whose  iron  content  corresponded  to 
that  of  the  average  earth's  crust,  as  now  known,  over  eight  mil- 
lions of  millions  of  tons  of  rock  must  have  been  decomposed  to  fur- 
nish the  iron  finally  deposited  in  this  part  of  the  Clinton  series. 

Similar  calculations  for  the  Luxembourg  basin  give  results  of 
about  the  same  degree  of  magnitude,  while  the  Lake  Superior 
and  Brazilian  basins  would  give  far  higher  totals.  The  supply  of 
the  material  necessary  for  these  great  basin  deposits  therefore  in- 
volved geologic  work  on  a  vast  scale.  But,  further  than  this,  it 
also  involved  great  rapidity  in  the  rate  of  this  work. 


CHAPTER  VI 

REPLACEMENTS  AND  FILLINGS 

In  this  group  are  included  such  iron-ore  deposits  as  have  origi- 
nated through  the  deposition  of  an  iron  mineral  in  a  pre-existing 
rock  mass.  The  iron  is  always  brought  to  its  point  of  deposit  in 
solution,  but  many  variations  are  shown  in  the  various  stages 
of  this  process.  For  example,  the  iron-bearing  water  may  be 
ascending  or  descending,  heated  or  cold;  the  deposition  may  take 
place  in  pores  or  cavities,  or  usually  by  actual  replacement  of  the 
rock  mass;  the  process  may  be  incidental  to  igneous  action,  or 
entirely  independent  of  it.  It  would  be  possible,  taking  advan- 
tage of  these  variations  in  the  details  of  the  process,  to  subdivide 
this  group  into  an  infinite  number  of  sub-classes.  The  simple 
grouping  shown  below,  however,  seems  to  cover  all  actual 
requirements. 

Disregarding  possible  but  unimportant  variations,  four  sub- 
groups of  Class  C  are  to  be  distinguished; 

1.  Cavity  and  pore  fillings;  in  which  pre-existing  spaces  in  a 
rock  mass  are  filled  by  the  deposition  of  an  iron  mineral. 

2.  Normal  replacements;  in  which  a  mass  of  pre-existing  rock  is 
actually  replaced  with  an  iron  mineral,  deposited  from  solution  in- 
dependent of  igneous  action. 

3.  Secondary  concentrations;  in  which  a  low-grade  ore  is  en- 
riched by  iron  derived  from  the  upper  portions  of  the  ore  bed 
itself. 

4.  Contact  replacement;  in  which  a  mass  of  pre-existing  rock  is 
replaced  with  an  iron  mineral,  deposited  from  heated  solutions 
set  in  action  by  local  igneous  intrusions. 

From  an  industrial  standpoint,  replacement  deposits  rank  next 
to  the1  sedimentary  deposits  in  importance,  for  they  include  the 
Lake  Superior  hematites,  most  of  our  eastern  and  southern  brown 
ores,  and  many  brown  ores,  hematites  and  magnetites  elsewhere 
in  the  United  States  and  abroad. 

71 


72  IRON  ORES 


1.  CAVE  AND  CAVITY  FILLINGS 

Rock-masses  of  any  type  or  kind  may  contain  cavities  of 
greater  or  lesser  extent,  even  if  nothing  more  than  spaces  widened 
out  by  solution  along  joint  planes.  Limestone,  however,  is 
peculiarly  subject  to  attack  by  even  slightly  acid  waters,  and 
by  far  the  majority  of  large  open  cavities  or  caves  occur  in  lime- 
stone. Waters  penetrating  from  the  surface,  and  charged  with 
carbon  dioxide  or  other  acid  agent,  readily  dissolve  out  channels 
and  chambers  in  the  rock. 

This  much  being  generally  accepted,  it  is  obviously  conceivable 
that  other  waters,  carrying  iron  carbonate  or  other  iron  salt  in 
solution,  might  refill  such  solution  cavities  with  a  deposit  of  iron 
ore;  and  this  possible  mode  of  origin  has  been  given  consideration 
in  various  published  discussions  on  the  formation  of  brown  iron- 
ore  deposits.  Evidence  in  its  favor  is,  of  course,  afforded  by  the 
frequent  occurrence  in  brown-ore  deposits  of  stalactites  and  other 
curiously  shaped  masses  of  brown  ore,  which  could  hardly  have 
assumed  these  particular  forms  except  in  an  open  space  of  some 
kind. 

In  the  writer's  opinion  it  is  easily  possible  to  lay  too  much 
stress  upon  this  particular  mode  of  brown-ore  origin.  It  is 
undoubtedly  true  that  brown-ore  deposits  can  originate  in  this 
way;  it  is  also  true  that  in  almost  all  of  our  brown-ore  deposits  a 
certain  amount  of  such  cavity  rilling  has  taken  place:  but  it  is 
highly  improbable  that  any  large  deposit  at  present  worked  has 
originated  entirely  or  principally  in  this  way.  Replacement  has 
been  a  far  more  important  method. 

In  spite  of  frequent  discussion  of  cavity  rilling  as  a  mode  of 
genesis,  no  published  accounts  of  the  actual  formation  of  iron 
ores  in  caves  have  ever  come  to  the  writer's  attention.  Under 
these  circumstances  the  following  account  of  a  small  ore  deposit 
still  in  progress  of  formation  may  be  of  interest.  It  is  prepared 
from  notes  made  at  various  intervals  some  years  ago,  while 
engaged  in  development  work  in  the  iron  region  lying  along  the 
Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Railroad  in  Virginia. 

The  old  fluxing  quarry  of  the  Lowmoor  Iron  Company,  near 
Lowmoor  station,  is  located  in  flat-lying  limestone  beds  belonging 
to  the  upper  portion  of  the  Helderberg  or  Lewistown  series.  It 
was  worked  in  great  rooms  or  chambers,  carried  up  to  a  roof  of 


REPLACEMENTS  AND  FILLINGS  73 

Oriskany  sandstone,  which  in  turn  is  overlain  by  black  Devonian 
shales.  The  sandstone  is  firm,  but  fairly  porous;  the  shales 
contain  a  rather  high  percentage  of  iron,  in  the  form  of  carbonate 
nodules,  or  pyrite,  and  of  oxide. 

During  operation  the  quarry  rooms  at  several  points  broke  into 
old  water-channels  and  caves,  varying  greatly  in  size.  One  of 
these  was,  at  the  time  of  my  study  of  the  district,  filling  with  a 
deposit  of  brown  iron  ore.  The  deposited  material  was  derived 
from  infiltrating  waters,  which  had  become  charged  with  iron 
carbonate  during  their  downward  passage  through  the  black 
shales  above  the  quarry. 

Water  enters  this  particular  cave  at  several  points,  either 
percolating  through  the  strata  or  flowing  through  small  channels 
dissolved  out  of  the  limestone.  This  water  carries  various 
materials,  some  in  solution  and  some  in  suspension,  and  the 
different  products  of  deposition  are  of  interest. 

One  of  the  larger  channels,  for  example,  brought  into  the  cave  a 
large  amount  of  very  fine  clayey  matter,  carrying  it  of  course 
entirely  in  suspension.  This  clay  was  spread  out  as  an  even 
deposit  over  the  floor  of  the  cavity.  Samples  which  I  took  were 
analyzed  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Gibboney  with  the  following  results: 

ANALYSIS  OF  CAVE  CLAY,  LOWMOOR,  VA. 

Silica 55 . 64  percent 

Alumina 23 . 80 

Ferric  oxide 6.18 

Titanic  oxide 0.10 

Lime 0 . 52 

Magnesia 0 . 54 

Soda 0.51 

Potash 5 . 20 

This  analysis  corresponds  quite  closely  with  a  number  of 
analyses  of  the  unaltered  black  shale;  and  the  cave  clay  has  prob- 
ably been  subjected  to  relatively  little  change  during  its  trans- 
portation and  deposition. 

The  waters  seeping  through  the  strata,  having  been  filtered 
fairly  free  from  all  suspended  matter,  give  deposits  of  strikingly 
different  character  from  the  clay  just  mentioned.  The  seepage 
waters  carry  iron  carbonate  in  solution  and  this  is  deposited  where 
the  waters  encounter  air  and  free  space  on  entering  the  cave. 
The  deposition  takes  place  in  two  distinct  forms:  (1)  as  an  ochre- 


74  IRON  ORES 

ous  powder  or  mud,  sometimes  aggregated  into  hard  lumps,  on 
the  cave  floor,  and  (2)  as  iron  stalactites  hanging  from  the  roof 
of  the  cave.  Samples  of  these  iron  deposits  analyzed  by  Mr. 
Gibboney  gave  the  following  results : 

ANALYSES  OF  IRON  STALACTITES  AND  OCHER,  LOWMOOR,  VA. 

123 

Metallic  iron 46.88  54.56  29.84 

Metallic  manganese 1.12  0. 49           4 . 16 

Silica 5.40  6.29  24.46 

Alumina 11.87  5.45           9.10 

Lime 0.24  0.16           0.20 

Magnesia 0.24  0.33           1.28 

Sulphur 0.05  0.03           0.06 

Of  the  above  analyses,  No.  1  represents  the  composition  of  the 
iron  stalactites  hanging  from  the  cave  roof;  and  No.  2  is  the  aver- 
age of  several  lumps  of  the  hard  ocher  formed  by  deposition 
on  the  floor  of  the  cave.  Both  of  these,  it  will  be  noted,  are  very 
good  brown  ores,  far  above  the  average  commercial  ore  of  that 
district,  and  comparing  favorably  with  any  of  the  better  class  of 
eastern  or  southern  brown  ores.  Sample  No.  3  is  of  fine  ocher 
mixed  with  the  cave  clay;  and  might  perhaps  be  accepted  as 
representing  the  average  of  the  material  with  which  the  cave 
would  finally  be  filled,  provided  the  two  classes  of  deposits  should 
keep  coming  in  at  about  their  existing  rate. 

Certain  irregularities  in  the  analyses  may  be  noted — the  high 
manganese  determination  in  No.  3  and  the  high  alumina  value  in 
No.  1.  The  first  of  these  requires  little  comment,  for  the  presence 
of  even  a  small  nodule  of  manganese  oxide  in  the  sample  would 
account  for  it.  The  high  alumina  of  No.  1,  however,  is  more 
noteworthy,  for  if  confirmed  it  implies  that  the  stalactites  contain, 
in  addition  to  brown  ore,  bauxite  or  some  related  aluminum 
hydroxide. 

The  preceding  description  of  a  cave  deposit  in  actual  process  of 
formation  is  of  interest  chiefly  as  throwing  some  light  on  the 
difficulty  of  discriminating  deposits  formed  in  this  manner  after 
the  process  has  been  completed.  It  is  obvious  that,  given  suffi- 
cient time,  a  commercial  deposit  might  easily  be  developed  in 
this  way.  Its  ores  would  agree  closely  in  composition  with  any 
which  might  have  been  formed  by  direct  replacement  in  the  same 
series;  and  the  only  clues  to  the  method  of  origin  would  have  to  be 


REPLACEMENTS  AND  FILLINGS  75 

sought  in  the  form  of  the  deposit  and  the  physical  make-up  of  the 
ore.  A  deposit  of  moderate  size,  with  irregular  roof  and  sides 
but  a  fairly  level  floor,  especially  if  occurring  in  a  flat-lying 
limestone  series,  might  reasonably  be  suspected  of  having  origi- 
nated as  a  cave  or  cavity  filling.  If  the  ores  were  entirely  iron 
oxides,  with  no  trace  of  iron  carbonate,  even  near  the  limestone 
contact,  this  suspicion  would  be  strengthened.  If,  in  addition, 
stalactitic  forms  of  iron  oxide  were  very  common,  the  proof 
would  approach  certainty.  Almost  every  brown-ore  deposit, 
whatever  its  origin,  contains  a  few  stalactites,  but  extreme 
frequency  of  this  form  would  point  toward  cave  origin  for  the 
entire  deposit. 

Origin  in  this  manner  has  been  ascribed  to  many  iron-ore 
deposits,  but  the  proof  is  in  general  inconclusive  so  far  as  large 
deposits  are  concerned.  At  present  the  hematite  deposits  occur- 
ring in  Dent,  Crawford  and  other  counties  in  southeast  Missouri 
are  the  most  important  depositc  whose  origin  is  thought  to  be  of 
this  general  type.  Crane,  in  a  recent  report,1  describes  these 
deposits  in  detail,  and  considers  that  they  are  due  to  the  altera- 
tion of  iron  sulphide,  originally  deposited  in  limestone  sinks. 

2.  NORMAL  REPLACEMENTS 

In  distinction  from  the  class  of  deposits  which  has  just  been 
discussed,  replacement  deposits  originate  not  by  the  filling  of  a 
pre-existing  cavity,  but  by  the  actual  substitution  of  an  iron 
ore,  particle  for  particle,  for  the  body  of  an  existing  rock-mass. 
In  the  commonest  case,  iron-bearing  waters  percolating  through 
limestone  remove  the  calcium  carbonate  in  solution  and  deposit 
their  iron  in  its  place,  usually  in  the  form  of  iron  carbonate.  In 
less  common  but  still  important  cases,  sandstones  and  other  sili- 
ceous rocks  are  similarly  replaced  by  iron  ores. 

The  iron  mineral,  as  deposited,  may  be  carbonate,  sulphide  or 
oxide;  but  subsequent  alterations  will  usually  change  its  mineral 
character  without  any  change  in  the  form  of  the  ore  deposit. 
As  now  found,  the  bulk  of  our  normal  replacement  deposits  occur 
as  brown  ores,  though  hematite  deposits  of  this  type  are  fairly 
frequent  and  magnetite  deposits  are  known. 

1  Crane,  G.  W.  The  Iron  Ores  of  Missouri,  Vol.  X,  2d  series,  Reports 
Me.  Geol.  Survey,  1912,  Chapter  VI  especially. 


76 


IRON  ORES 


When  the  rock  enclosing  the  ore  deposit  is  limestone,  there  is 
quite  a  sharp  and  definite  distinction  between  cavity  fillings  and 
replacements,  for  the  solution  of  limestone  usually  results  in 
complete  removal  of  the  mass  of  the  rock.  But  it  is  different 
when  a  porous  sandstone  (or  a  sandstone  or  shale  in  which  the 
siliceous  matter  is  held  together  by  calcareous  cement)  is  the 
subject  of  attack.  For  in  this  case  the  distinction  between  pore 
filling  and  replacement  is  very  indefinite,  and  the  two  processes 
merge  into  each  other  very  gradually.  Certain  of  these  differ- 


Residual  Clays  Limestone  Shale  Ore  Replacing  Limestone 

k-Rock  Surface.  First  Stage.      B'Rock  Surface,  Second  Stage.     ^-Ground  Surface.  Second  Stage. 


FIG.  6. — States  in  origin  of  brown-ore  deposit. 

Figure  at  left  shows  first  stage,  in  which  replacement  of  limestone  beds 
has  given  rise  to  tabular  steeply  dipping  ore-bodies.  The  figure  at  right 
shows  effects  of  later  weathering  of  these  ore-bodies,  the  final  result  being 
irregular  surficial  deposits  underlain  in  depth  by  the  replacement  beds. 

ences  arising  from  the  original  character  of  the  replaced  rock 
have  a  commercial  as  well  as  a  geological  importance,  and  from 
either  point  of  view  they  will  justify  further  discussion. 

Living  in  the  temperate  zone,  we  become  insensibly  accustomed 
to  certain  types  of  rock  decay,  and  it  is  difficult  to  realize  that  over 
the  greater  extent  of  the  earth's  land  surface  the  conditions  as  to 
weathering  are  very  different.  In  the  northern  United  States, 
for  example,  we  find  that  limestone  is  extremely  soluble,  while 
siliceous  rocks  are  extremely  resistant  to  solution  by  percolating 
waters.  All  of  our  recent  northern  brown-ore  deposits  are  seen 


REPLACEMENTS  AND  FILLINGS  77 

to  be  replacements  of  limestone,  with  practically  no  trace  of 
attack  on  sandstones  or  igneous  rocks.  But  as  we  go  southward 
conditions  change  in  this  regard.  Even  in  Virginia  we  find  sand- 
stones beginning  to  show  replacement  by  iron  oxide,  and  in 
Georgia  the  siliceous  rocks  contain  some  notable  ore  deposits. 
Further  south  this  change  in  relative  solubility  becomes  still  more 
marked,  and  it  has  important  results  on  the  formation  and  local- 
ization of  ore  deposits. 

Relations  to  the  Ground  Surface. — Since  normal  replacements 
have  been  formed  mostly  by  waters  acting  from  the  ground  sur- 
face downward,  the  deposits  have  a  very  definite  relation  to  the 
surface  as  it  existed  at  the  time  of  their  formation.  It  may  further 
be  noted  that  in  actual  practice  we  have  only  to  deal  with  very 
recent  replacements,  originating  during  a  period  in  which  the 
topography  was  not  markedly  different  from  that  shown  at 
present,  for  replacement  deposits  of  older  date  would  by  this 
time  have  been  removed,  covered  up  by  later  deposits,  or  rendered 
unrecognizable.  It  is  only  in  very  rare  cases  that  we  find  an  ore 
deposit  representing  pre-Tertiary  replacement. 

Owing  to  those  conditions,  the  replacement  deposits  actually 
worked  are  commonly  largest  and  richest  at  or  very  near  the 
ground  surface,  and  they  become  smaller  with  depth  and  finally 
terminate  in  barren  rock  at  no  great  depth.  In  the  Oriskany 
district  of  Virginia,  where  conditions  have  been  exceptionally 
favorable  to  deep  replacement  in  steeply  dipping  beds,  the  deepest 
deposits  known  are  in  the  neighborhood  of  600  feet  below  the 
present  surface;  the  bulk  of  the  ore  of  the  district  has  been  mined 
within  300  feet  of  the  surface. 

Extent  of  Deposit. — Replacement  deposits  of  course  vary 
greatly  in  their  continuity,  size  and  tonnage,  but  where  circum- 
stances have  been  favorable  individual  ore-bodies  are  oftentimes 
far  larger  than  is  generally  understood.  A  few  instances,  cover- 
ing actual  conditions  in  known  ore-bodies,  may  be  of  interest 
in  this  connection. 

The  ore-body  worked  at  the  Oriskany  mine  in  Virginia,  which 
is  a  practically  continuous  deposit  of  the  replacement  type,  has 
been  estimated  to  contain  some  six  million  tons  of  ore.  At  the 
Rich  Patch  mines,  in  the  same  district,  there  have  been  surface 
and  underground  workings  on  one  absolutely  continuous  ore- 
body  5600  feet  in  length,  with  an  average  of  400  feet  or  more  in 


78  IRON  ORES 

depth,  and  of  35  feet  in  width.  This  corresponds  to  from  three 
to  four  million  tons  of  commercial  (washed)  ore  in  the  individual 
deposit. 

When  the  inquiry  is  extended  so  as  to  cover  the  entire  area  with- 
in which  replacement  has  been  common,  the  figures  are  of  course 
on  a  larger  scale.  In  the  Oriskany  district  of  Virginia  and  West 
Virginia,  for  example,  there  is  an  area  some  100  miles  or  moreint 
length,  and  from  20  to  30  in  width,  within  which  almost  every 
mile  of  Helderberg  limestone  outcrop  will  show  some  replacement 
by  iron  ore.  The  entire  group  of  deposits  thus  formed  may  easily 
contain  over  100  million  tons  of  ore  of  various  grades. 

Form  of  the  Deposit. — The  form  taken  by  a  replacement  de- 
posit is  to  some  extent  dependent  on  the  character  of  the  rock 
replaced,  but  to  a  larger  degree  depends  on  the  attitude  of  the 
bedding  in  the  original  rock. 

Other  things  being  equal,  a  replacement  deposit  will  assume  a 
tabular  form,  parallel  to  the  rock  bedding,  when  that  bedding 
dips  at  a  high  angle  to  horizontal.  In  this  case  percolating  waters 
are  apt  to  pass  quite  readily  down  a  particularly  permeable  bed, 
so  that  the  bulk  of  the  solution  and  replacement  are  apt  to  occur 
within  that  particular  bed  or  layer.  We  thus  obtain  finally  ore 
deposits  having  considerable  extent  along  the  outcrop,  a  relatively 
narrow  width  across  the  beds,  and  a  depth  much  greater  than 
the  width  but  usually  less  than  the  outcrop  length.  This  type 
of  deposit  is  well  exemplified  by  the  Oriskany  brown  ores  of 
Virginia,  which  have  originated  by  replacement  of  a  steeply  dip- 
ping limestone  bed. 

When,  in  place  of  a  steeply  dipping  rock  series  made  up  of  beds 
varying  in  solubility,  we  have  to  deal  with  a  flat-lying  series,  or  a 
very  homogeneous  series,  the  results  as  to  form  of  deposit  are  far 
different.  In  either  of  these  latter  cases  the  paths  of  the  perco- 
lating waters  are  not  so  sharply  limited  by  particular  beds,  and 
the  final  result  is  commonly  an  ore  deposit  of  irregular  basin 
shape,  perhaps  approximately  circular  or  oval  in  its  plan  at  the 
outcrop,  but  narrowing  in  both  directions  with  depth. 

When  the  rock  attacked  has  not  been  limestone,  but  sandstone 
or  a  metamorphic  or  igneous  siliceous  rock,  the  boundaries  of  the 
replacement  deposit  are  apt  to  be  much  more  irregular.  There 
is  a  tendency  to  form  stringers  and  offshoots,  following  joint 
planes  or  other  relatively  non-resistant  portions  of  the  rock. 


REPLACEMENTS  AND  FILLINGS 


79 


LEET  MINE     W.  STOCK  BRIDGE  MASS. 


DAVIS  MINE    -LAKEVILLE.CONN. 


NATIONAL  MINE     PAWLING,  NY. 


'AMENIA  MINE 
AMENIA,  NY 


ORE   HILL  MINE 


LAKEVILLE,CONN. 


[  Hudson  Schisf 
Stockbr/dge  Limestone 


Probable  Extension 
of  Beds 


feoi^gj   Li  mo  nfe  m  C/ay 
tlaT  pTI  S/afer/fe 


FIG.  7. — Effect  of  structure  on  replacement  ore-bodies. 

These  cross-sections  of  actual  ore-bodies  in  the  well-known  Salisbury 
district  of  New  York-New  England  show  the  varied  effects  due  to  dif- 
ferences in  composition  and  attitude  of  the  replaced  rocks.  They  also 
show,  in  some  instances,  the  occurrence  of  iron  carbonate  in  the  deeper 
levels,  a  characteristic  of  brown-ore  replacements  of  limestone. 


80  IRON  ORES 

Composition  of  the  Ores. — At  and  near  the  surface  the  iron 
ores  which  have  originated  by  normal  replacement  are  commonly 
brown  ores,  though  hematite  also  occurs  in  deposits  of  this  type. 
Occasionally  the  ores  do  not  change  in  mineral  character  in  depth, 
but  when  a  limestone  has  been  the  rock  replaced  we  are  apt  to 
find  some  of  the  original  iron  carbonate  at  and  near  the  base  and 
sides  of  the  ore  deposit. 

Considered  either  as  commercial  materials  or  as  geologic  prod- 
ucts, the  iron  ores  of  a  replacement  deposit  usually  contain 
constituents  from  two  different  sources.  Part  of  their  compo- 
nents came  in  with  the  percolating  iron-laden  water;  in  this  class 
we  may  include  the  iron  of  the  ore,  and  usually  most  if  not  all  of 
the  manganese,  sulphur  and  phosphorus  it  may  carry.  But 
there  is  another  and  often  very  important  part  of  the  existing  ore 
which  does  not  represent  material  carried  in  by  the  water,  but 
material  left  behind  during  the  solution  of  the  rock  which  has 
been  replaced.  Thus  the  ore  may  contain  fragments  of  chert  or 
flint,  left  behind  by  the  solution  of  cherty  limestone;  it  may 
contain  sand  grains,  residual  from  a  replaced  sandstone;  or  it 
may  carry  clayey  matter,  usually  left  behind  by  a  replaced 
limestone. 

Later  Weathering. — The  Oriskany  brown  ores  of  Virginia, 
which  have  been  discussed  as  typical  examples  of  replacement 
deposits,  were  selected  for  such  treatment  because  in  this  instance 
all  of  the  geological  elements  entering  into  the  problem  are  fairly 
well  known;  the  extensive  workings  have  supplied  adequate  data 
as  to  form  and  composition;  and,  most  important  of  all,  in  this 
particular  district  the  effects  of  later  weathering  have  not  been 
such  as  to  modify  or  conceal  the  real  relations  of  the  ore  to  its 
enclosing  and  associated  rocks. 

In  this  last  regard  the  Oriskany  ores  are  somewhat  exceptional 
among  Southern  brown  ores,  for  most  other  districts  have  suffered 
greatly  from  weathering  and  decomposition  of  the  rocks  subse- 
quent to  the  formation  of  the  ore  deposit. 

Chief  Typical  Deposits. — From  the  standpoint  of  tonnage  and 
industrial  importance,  the  ore  deposits  of  this  type  include  a 
number  of  interesting  examples.  Among  these  may  be  noted  the 
Oriskany  brown  ores  of  Virginia,  the  English  hematites,  the 
hematites  and  carbonates  of  north  Spain  and  southern  France, 
and  the  hematites  of  the  Santiago  district  in  Cuba.  These  are 


REPLACEMENTS  AND  FILLINGS  81 

described  in  later  chapters  where  additional  local  details  con- 
cerning the  characters  and  relations  of  normal  replacement  de- 
posits may  be  found. 

It  is  highly  probable  that  almost  all  of  the  brown  ores  of  the 
southern  and  eastern  United  States  had  an  origin  that  is  due,  in 
some  degree,  to  replacement.  But  in  most  cases  subsequent 
rock  weathering  has  affected  the  form  of  the  deposit  very  mark- 
edly, and  has  in  some  cases  introduced  ore  deposition  of  another 
type.  As  the  deposits  stand  now,  it  is  questionable  whether  they 
are  due  mostly  to  replacement  or  mostly  to  later  residual  action 
and  re-deposition.  When  any  particular  case  can  be  studied  in 
proper  detail,  it  is  commonly  possible  to  come  to  some  conclusion 
regarding  this  point;  but  the  conclusion  relates  only  to  the  in- 
stance studied,  and  should  not  be  extended  so  as  to  cover  brown- 
ore  deposits  in  general. 

3.  SECONDARY  CONCENTRATIONS 

In  the  normal  replacements  which  h,ave  just  been  discussed, 
the  ore  deposit  originated  by  the  introduction  of  iron  minerals 
into  a  previously  barren  rock.  But  it  is  clear  that  similar  pro- 
cesses could,  under  favorable  conditions,  be  carried  on  within  a 
bed  of  low-grade  iron  ore;  and  that  they  might  ultimately  result 
in  such  concentration  of  the  iron  as  to  render  a  portion  of  the 
bed  workable.  It  is  with  deposits  of  this  type  that  we  have 
now  to  deal.  As  it  happens,  this  class  of  ore  deposits  includes 
one  of  the  most  important  series  of  iron  ore  deposits  in  the  world 
—the  hematites  of  the  Lake  Superior  region.  It  also  includes 
some  less  well-known  examples,  among  which  the  Hartville  ore 
deposits  of  Wyoming  may  be  noted. 

Extent  of  the  Deposits. — Since  the  formation  of  secondary 
concentrations  implies  the  existence  of  a  low-grade  iron  deposit, 
it  is  obvious  that  the  extent  of  the  secondary  deposits  must  be 
limited  by  that  of  the  pre-existing  low-grade  ore-bodies.  In 
discussing  the  sedimentary  iron  ores,  it  was  noted  that  there  are 
vast  deposits  of  iron  silicates,  carbonates  and  oxides,  deposited 
in  extensive  marine  basins,  and  formed  during  various  periods 
in  the  earth's  history.  If  secondary  concentration  should  take 
place  in  a  series  of  this  type,  it  is  evident  that  the  final  results 
might  be  remarkable,  both  as  regards  the  general  areal  extent 


82 


IRON  ORES 


2!  ^ 

I* 


JN 


of  the  ore  field  and  the  size  of 
the  individual  deposits.  In  the 
Lake  Superior  region  we  have 
an  instance  of  this  sort,  where 
under  favorable  conditions  as  to 
later  concentration  enormous 
bodies  of  low-grade  iron  mineral 
were  acted  upon  with  the  result 
that  the  final  products — the  exist- 
ing ore  deposits — are  on  a  very 
large  scale. 

Relations  and  Importance.— 
Secondary  concentrations  are  not 
in  any. sense  common  sources  of 
iron  ore  deposition,  but  they  have 
an  importance  far  out  of  propor- 
tion to  their  frequency,  due  solely 
to  the  fact  that  the  Lake  Superior 
ores  are  now  usually  assumed  to 
have  been  formed  in  this  manner. 
This  one  large-scale  example  tends 
to  throw  the  process  of  secondary 
concentration  into  a  relief  to 
which  it  would  not  be  otherwise 
entitled;  for  with  the  exception 
of  the  Sunrise  or  Hartville  ore  de- 
posits of  Wyoming  no  other  large 
iron  ore-bodies  have  been  attrib- 
uted to  this  method  of  origin. 

Though  discussed  here  as  closely 
related  to  normal  replacements, 
it  is  readily  seen  that  secondary 
concentrations  have  at  least 
equally  close  relations  with  two 
other  classes  of  iron  deposits — • 
the  sedimentary  and  the  alter- 
ation or  residual  deposits.  Their 
relationship  to  the  first  class 
arises  from  the  fact  that  the  forma- 
tion of  extensive  low-grade  sedi- 
mentary iron  deposits  was  the  first 


REPLACEMENTS  AND  FILLINGS 


83 


step  in  the  origin  of  the  existing  Lake  Superior  concentrations. 
Their  relationship  to  the  alteration  or  residual  ores  is  perhaps 
even  closer,  for  the  two  classes  differ  chiefly  with  regard  to  the 
transfer  of  iron  during  the  alteration  processes.  In  dealing  with 
the  formation  of  gossan  deposits,  the  conversion  of  hard  Clinton 
ores  into  soft  or  leached  ores,  and  the  surficial  alteration  of  iron 
carbonate  into  brown  ore,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  initial  processes 
are  of  much  the  same  type  as  take  place  in  the  case  of  the  second, 
ary  concentrations.  But  in  these  latter  the  iron  is  removed  and 


FIG.  9. — Vertical  east-west  section  through  the  Chandler  mine,  Vermillion 
range,  Minnesota.     (Clements.) 

redeposited  by  replacement  in  another  part  of  the  same  bed  or 
series,  while  in  the  residual  ores  the  non-ferrous  constituents  of 
the  original  body  are  removed,  and  the  iron  left  practically  un- 
changed in  position,  though  altered  in  mineral  character. 

Requisite  Conditions. — In  the  formation  of  an  important  body 
of  iron  ore  by  secondary  concentration,  certain  factors  must  co- 
operate in  a  very  complete  and  extensive  fashion.  The  absence 


84  IRON  ORES 

of  any  one  of  these  factors,  or  their  failure  to  co-operate  in  the 
proper  space  and  time  relations,  will  prevent  the  formation  of  a 
large  deposit  of  this  type.  It  is  this  complexity  of  origin,  this 
necessary  delicate  adjustment  of  the  contributing  factors,  that 
explain  the  relative  scarcity  of  secondary  concentration  iron 
districts. 

The  factors  involved  may  be  summarized  as  follows:  There 
must  be  an  extensive  series  of  low-grade  iron  ores,  and  this  almost 
inevitably  involves  the  preliminary  formation  of  these  low-grade 
deposits  by  sedimentary  means.  The  low-grade  deposits,  after 
formation,  must  be  exposed  to  leaching,  under  such  structural, 
topographic  and  chemical  conditions  that  the  iron  leached  from 
the  exposed  portions  of  the  beds  is  not  carried  off  into  the  general 
circulation  but  is  redeposited  lower  down  in  the  same  series. 
The  exact  points  at  which  such  redeposition  occur,  and  the  form 
which  the  secondary  deposits  may  take,  are  further  determined 
by  structural  or  other  conditions  which  may  restrict  or  localize 
the  iron-laden  water. 

It  can  be  understood  that  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  assum- 
ing that  an  upturned  series  including  some  low-grade  ore  beds 
were  leached,  one  of  two  results  would  happen,  and  that  neither 
of  these  would  lead  to  the  formation  of  secondary  concentrations. 
Either  the  non-ferrous  constituents  of  the  low-grade  ores  would  be 
removed  by  the  percolating  waters,  and  the  iron  mineral  left  as  a 
residual  deposit;  or  if  chemical  and  other  conditions  were  favor- 
able for  the  solution  of  the  iron,  it  would  be  taken  into  circulation 
and  deposited  elsewhere  than  in  the  same  bed.  With  deposits 
of  the  types  which  result  from  either  of  these  occurrences  we  are 
very  well  acquainted.  But  in  order  that  a  large  secondary  con- 
centration may  result,  there  must  be  certain  special  conditions 
which  do  not  commonly  occur  at  the  same  time.  Not  only 
must  the  general  structural,  topographic  and  chemical  conditions 
be  favorable  at  the  outset  of  the  process,  but  there  must  be  a 
very  delicate  balance  between  solution  and  redeposition;  and 
this  delicate  adjustment  must  be  maintained  over  long  periods 
of  time.  In  view  of  these  necessary  conditions,  it  is  not  a  matter 
for  surprise  that  the  Lake  Superior  ores  stand  almost  alone  in 
their  assumed  mode  of  origin. 

The  geologic  relations  and  mode  of  origin  of  the  Lake  ores  will 
be  discussed  in  more  detail  in  Chapter  XVII. 


REPLACEMENTS  AND  FILLINGS 


85 


FIG.  10. — Cross-section    of    ore-body    in    Marquette    district,    Michigan. 
(Leith  and  Van  Hise.) 

Secondary  concentration  of  the  iron  originally  contained  in  the  ferruginous 
chert  formation  has  taken  place,  the  ore-bodies  being  localized  chiefly 
along  the  footwall  quartzite,  or  above  cross-cutting  igneous  dikes. 


86  IRON  ORES 


4.  CONTACT  REPLACEMENT  DEPOSITS 

When  a  fused  mass  of  igneous  rock  is  intruded  into  another 
series  of  rocks,  heated  solutions  and  vapors  emanating  from  the 
fused  rock  may  cause  various  chemical  and  mineralogical  changes 
to  take  place,  particularly  of  course  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
the  igneous  contact.  Ore  deposition  is  one  of  the  possible  results 
of  these  activities,  and  many  magnetite  and  hematite  deposits 
have  been  ascribed  to  this  class. 

When  iron  ore  deposition  is  a  result  of  the  processes  above 
outlined,  the  deposit  formed  may  (1)  replace  portions  of  the 
pre-existing  rock  through  or  into  which  the  igneous  mass  was 
injected;  (2)  replace  portions  of  the  igneous  mass  itself;  or  (3) 
form  fairly  distinct  veins  or  joint  fillings.  Of  these  three  types 
of  resulting  deposit,  the  first  is  the  most  common. 

Location  and  Form  of  Deposit. — Limiting  consideration  for  the 
moment  to  the  case  in  which  replacement  and  not  vein  filling  is 
the  result,  it  may  be  said  that  contact  deposits  may  show  con- 
siderable variation  in  both  form  and  location,  according  to  the 
local  conditions  under  which  they  were  formed.  Normally  the 


Sandstone 
Limestone 


2  miles 


FIG.  11. — Relation  of  contact  ore  deposits  to  igneous  mines,  Iron  Springs 
district,  Utah.     (Leith  and  Harder.) 

bulk  of  the  deposit  will  occur  as  an  irregular  mass,  lying  approxi- 
mately parallel  to  the  contact  between  the  igneous  mass  and  the 
older  rocks  which  the  igneous  mass  has  penetrated.  But  when 
these  older  rocks  are  bedded,  and  there  is  great  variation  in  the 


REPLACEMENTS  AND  FILLINGS  87 

composition  and  permeability  of  the  different  beds,  there  is  a 
chance  that  the  iron-bearing  solutions  or  vapors  will  be  most 
effective  along  the  bedding  of  a  readily  attacked  layer  or  bed. 
In  this  case  the  final  result  will  be  an  ore-body  of  roughly  tabular 
form,  extending  away  from  the  igneous  mass  and  finally  dying 
out  in  barren  rock. 

Contact  deposits  differ  from  normal  replacements  in  degree, 
rather  than  in  any  more  fundamental  way.  The  igneous  mass 
is  effective  chiefly  as  a  source  of  heat,  permitting  more  rapid  and 
effective  chemical  action  than  would  occur  with  waters  acting  at 
ordinary  temperatures.  The  igneous  rocks  may  also  serve,  in  a 
subordinate  capacity,  as  sources  of  part  or  all  of  the  iron  finally 
gathered  into  the  deposit;  but  obviously  that  effect  is  not  mark- 
edly different  from  that  produced  by  any  other  rock  mass.  The 
matter  might  be  summarized  by  saying  that  all  reactions  are 
likely  to  be  both  quicker  and  more  complete  under  the  influence 
of  the  igneous  heat;  and  that  some  reactions  which  would  not 
occur  at  ordinary  temperatures  may  take  place  in  contact 
deposition. 

As  with  normal  replacements,  limestones  are  by  far  the  most 
readily  attackable  rocks  under  contact  action.  When  the  con- 
tact deposit  is  a  replacement  of  a  limestone  mass,  it  is  apt  to  be 
both  larger  and  more  continuous  than  when  siliceous  rocks  have 
been  attacked. 

Chief  Known  Occurrences. — Iron  ore  deposits  of  contact  origin 
are  known  to  occur  in  many  portions  of  the  world,  but  certain 
areas  are  particularly  well  supplied  with  them,  owing  to  their 
geologic  history.  In  the  western  portion  of  the  United  States,  for 
example,  practically  every  large  iron  deposit  between  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  the  Pacific  Coast  is  of  this  type,  the  working  or 
partly  developed  districts  of  Fierro,  N.  M.,  and  Iron  Springs, 
Utah,  falling  in  this  class.  In  western  Canada  the  same  state- 
ment holds  true,  the  best-known  examples  being  the  ore  deposits 
occurring  on  Texada  and  other  islands  off  the  coast  of  British 
Columbia.  Almost  everything  so  far  developed  or  examined  in 
Mexico  and  Central  America  has  turned  out  to  be  a  contact 
deposit;  and  the  deposits  of  Chile  and  other  areas  along  the  west 
coast  of  South  America  are  similar.  We  might  summarize  the 
matter  by  saying  that  almost  every  known  iron  deposit  along  the 
Pacific  Coast,  from  Alaska  to  southern  Chile,  and  from  the  actual 


88 


IRON  ORES 


coast  back  to  the  easternmost  mountain  range,  falls  in  the  class 
of  contact  deposits. 

In  the  eastern  United  States  we  have  to  deal  with  deposits  of 
greater  age,  and  less  certain  origin.     Spencer  considers  that  the 


FIG.  12. 


soo  feet 


FIG.  13. 

FIG.  12,  13. — Contact  ore  deposits  in  Iron  Springs  district,  Utah.     (Leith 

and  Harder.) 

Cornwall  magnetites  of  eastern  Pennsylvania  are  contact  ores; 
and  Keith  seems  to  credit  the  Cranberry  magnetites  of  North 
Carolina  to  the  same  mode  of  origin.  In  a  somewhat  modified 


Mesozo/c 


Limestone 

Diabase 

FIG.  14. — Contact  ore  deposit  at  Cornwall,   Pa.     (Spencer.) 

form  Spencer  has  applied  the  same  idea  to  some  of  the  New  Jersey 
magnetites,  and  it  is  altogether  likely  that  it  could  be  extended  to 
cover  New  York  ores  in  both  the  Highlands  and  Adirondacks. 


CHAPTER  VII 
ALTERATION  DEPOSITS 

The  various  types  of  sedimentary  and  replacement  deposits 
which  have  been  discussed  in  the  two  preceding  chapters  differ  in 
many  respects,  but  they  agree  in  that  in  each  case  the  process  of 
ore  deposition  involved  the  formation  of  a  new  iron  deposit  in  a 
new  place.  In  other  words,  one  element  in  the  process  was  the 
transportation  of  the  iron,  usually  in  solution,  from  its  point  of 
origin  to  its  place  of  deposition.  .We  have  now  to  deal  with 
several  related  types  of  ore  deposits  in  which  this  element  of  trans- 
portation is  either  entirely  lacking,  or  else  plays  a  very  subordi- 
nate part. 

The  deposits  here  grouped  together  for  convenience  under  the 
head  of  Alteration  Deposits  agree  in  that  they  owe  their  present 
location,  form  or  character  to  the  fact  that  a  pre-existing  deposit 
of  iron  mineral  has  been  more  or  less  altered  or  re-made.  The 
chief  factor  in  the  alteration  is  commonly,  as  in  the  sedimentary 
and  replacement  ores,  surface  or  sub-surface  water;  but  in  the 
alteration  deposits  the  water  does  little  or  no  transportation  of  the 
iron  mineral  or  iron  compound. 

It  will  be  found  profitable  to  introduce  a  further  restriction  into 
our  definition,  and  to  limit  the  use  of  the  term  Alteration  Deposits 
to  those  in  which  a  previously  unworkable  body  of  iron  mineral 
has  been  converted,  essentially  in  place,  into  a  deposit  of  workable 
iron  ore.  This  definition  may  seem  lacking  in  precision,  but 
when  applied  to  the  iron  deposits  actually  encountered  it  is 
satisfactory  enough  for  all  purposes.  As  thus  limited  certain 
minor  types  of  altered  ores  are  excluded  from  the  present  class. 
Among  these  minor  though  locally  interesting  types  may  be  noted 
such  instances  as  the  usual  alteration  of  carbonate  ores  to  brown 
ores  at  the  outcrop,  the  leaching  of  the  limey  Clinton  ores  to  soft 
ore,  the  local  metamorphism  of  oolitic  hematites  to  magnetite 
(as  in  some  Nova  Scotia  areas)  and  other  changes  of  similar 
nature.  These  can  best  be  treated  as  purely  local  phenomena, 
and  not  as  separate  types  of  ore  deposits. 

89 


90  IRON  ORES 

As  thus  limited,  the  present  group  includes  such  iron-ore 
deposits  as  have  originated  through  the  chemical  and  physical 
alteration  and  weathering  of  a  pre-existing  body  of  unworkable 
iron  mineral  or  iron-bearing  rock.  It  differs  from  all  the  groups 
heretofore  discussed  in  that  the  ore  deposits  included  have  under- 
gone material  change  in  composition  without  material  change  in 
place. 

Though  a  number  of  minor  variations  in  process  and  results 
could  be  used  as  a  basis  for  closer  subdivision,  the  two  chief  types 
of  alteration  deposits  which  require  recognition  are : 

1.  Gossan  deposits;  in  which  ores  are  formed  by  the  alteration 
of  a  pre-existing  deposit  of  iron  sulphide. 

2.  Residual  deposits;  in  which  ores  are  either  left  behind  or 
newly  formed  (in  place)  during  the  decay  or  solution  of  an  iron- 
bearing  rock. 

In  both  cases,  it  may  be  noted,  the  iron  ore  which  results  is 
usually  one  of  the  hydrated  oxides  or  brown  ores.  As  will  be 
seen  during  the  discussion,  there  is  a  close  gradation  between  the 
various  types  of  alteration  deposits,  from  the  gossan  ores  through 
the  solution  residuals  to  the  laterite  residuals;  and  the  separation 
into  sub-classes  is  based  chiefly  on  the  convenience  of  treatment. 

GOSSAN  DEPOSITS 

During  the  slow  weathering  of  a  body  of  pyrite  of  other  sul- 
phide ore,  the  sulphur  is  largely  removed  in  solution.  This  leaves 
a  surficial  capping  of  spongy  brown  ore,  called  " gossan."  At 
various  points  in  the  United  States  iron-ore  deposits  of  this  type 
occur,  some  of  which  are  large  enough  to  be  of  commercial  im- 
portance. This  is  notably  the  case  in  southwestern  Virginia 
and  in  the  Ducktown  region  of  southeastern  Tennessee. 

The  Original  Minerals. — The  two  minerals  which  most  com- 
monly give  rise  to  the  formation  of  extensive  gossan  deposits  of 
brown  ore  are  the  iron  sulphides,  pyrite  and  pyrrhotite.  Of 
these  pyrite,  whose  chemical  formula  is  FeS2,  contains  when  pure 
sulphur  53.3  percent  and  iron  46.7  percent.  Pyrrhotite  carries 
considerably  more  iron  and  less  sulphur,  its  formula  ranging 
from  FeySs  to  FenSi2;  its  sulphur  content  from  39.5  percent  to 
38.5  percent,  and  its  iron  from  60.5  percent  to  61.5  percent. 

This  original  difference  in  the  iron  content  of  the  two  sulphides 


ALTERATION  DEPOSITS 


91 


has  little  or  no  effect  on  the  relative  richness  of  the  gossan  ores 
formed  from  them,  for  that  depends  upon  the  character  and 
amount  of  the  gangue  and  the  completeness  with  which  the 
sulphides  have  been  decomposed. 

The  original  deposit  may  vary  greatly  in  several  important 
respects:  it  may  have  consisted  largely  of  one  of  the  sulphides, 
or  of  a  mixture  of  them;  the  sulphide  ore  may  have  been  rich  and 
massive,  or  a  lean  body,  high  in  gangue  materials;  the  sulphide 
ore  deposit  may  have  been  of  igneous,  of  contact  or  of  other 
origin;  and  its  form  may  have  been  a  fairly  regular  band  or  lens, 
or  a  very  irregular  pockety  mass.  All  of  these  circumstances 


1000  Feet 


Gossan  iron  ore      Horizon  of    Low-grade  iron  and 
chalcocite       copper  sulphides 

FIG.  15. — Gossan  deposits  at  Ducktown,  Tenn.      (Emmons  and  Laney.) 

naturally  have  some  effect  upon  the  resulting  gossan  ore-body; 
but  they  are  purely  local  in  their  nature,  and  each  instance  re- 
quires separate  study  and  attention. 

Process  of  Alteration. — For  convenience  it  will  be  well  to  as- 
sume that  we  are  dealing  with  what  is  perhaps  the  most  common 
type,  so  far  as  the  formation  of  workable  gossan  ores  is  concerned. 
In  this  case  the  original  ore-body  will  be  a  fairly  rich  mass  of 
pyrrhotite  with  considerable  intermixed  pyrite;  the  sulphide 
mass  will  be  enclosed  in  schists  or  other  metamorphic  rocks;  and 
it  will  be  roughly  lenticular  in  form.  The  entire  rock  series  will 
dip  at  a  rather  high  angle,  so  that  the  sulphide  bodies  will  outcrop 
as  long  narrow  bands,  varying  in  width,  and  at  intervals  narrowing 
very  markedly  or  pinching  out  entirely.  When  explored  in 
depth  these  sulphide  bands  will  show  considerable  persistence, 


92 


IRON  ORES 


but  also  the  same  narrowing  and  pinching  which  they  exhibited 
at  intervals  along  the  outcrop.  The  general  effect  will  therefore 
be  that  of  a  thin  lens,  or  of  a  series  of  such  lenses,  more  or  less 
connected. 

Atmospheric  attack  soon  decomposes  either  of  the  two  iron 
sulphides,  and  as  the  general  weathering  of  the  district  continues, 


Nw. 


7  //'•  •'/- 

200  Feet      /    '6rHL£V£L 


ScMst 


Ore  zone 


Gossan         Chalcocite  ore 


FIG.   16. — Gossan     formation    in    the    Mary    mine,    Ducktown,    Tenn. 
(Emmons  and  Laney.) 

the  process  of  alteration  is  carried  deeper  and  deeper  into  the 
original  sulphide  mass,  until  there  may  be  many  feet  of  leached 
material  left  as  a  residual.  This  residual  material  will  contain 
most  of  the  iron  from  the  original  sulphide,  along  with  whatever 
quartz  or  other  gangue  matter  was  contained  in  the  sulphide  ore- 


ALTERATION  DEPOSITS  93 

body.  The  iron  which  has  thus  been  left  behind  during  the 
weathering  will  be  in  the  form  of  one  of  the  hydrated  oxides  or 
brown  ores/  and  under  favorable  conditions  will  constitute  a 
workable  iron  ore.  The  process  of  weathering  involves  several 
stages,  but  the  final  effect  is  the  formation  of  sulphuric  acid, 
which  is  carried  off  in  the  waters;  and  of  iron  sulphate,  which 
remains  behind  and  alters  to  brown  ore. 

Character  of  the  Gossan  Ores. — The  residual  gossan  ores  are 
commonly  spongy  or  cellular  in  character,  but  this  characteristic 
is  not  unfailing,  and  they  may  in  places  appear  in  quite  compact 
and  massive  forms. 

Chemically,  they  show  considerable  variations,  but  there  are 
certain  broad  features  in  which  there  is  general  agreement.  They 
are  commonly,  for  example,  lower  in  phosphorus  and  manganese 
than  most  other  brown  ores.  On  the  other  hand,  when  the  leach- 
ing has  not  been  complete,  they  are  high  in  sulphur,  and  often 
show  traces  of  copper  and  occasionally  nickel.  Their  iron,  silica 
and  alumina  contents  depend  on  local  conditions  entirely,  and 
gossan  ores  may  therefore  range  from  almost  60  percent  iron 
and  low  silica  down  to  30  or  35  percent  iron  with  high  impurities. 

Their  value  as  iron  ores  depends  largely  upon  the  thoroughness 
with  which  the  sulphur  has  been  removed  during  the  weathering 
process.  When  this  has  been  done  pretty  effectually,  the  gossan 
ores  are  valuable  for  mixtures,  because  of  their  low  phosphorus 
and  excellent  physical  structure.  When  there  is  still  too  much 
sulphur  remaining,  it  may  pay  to  attempt  its  removal  in  a  fixed 
or  rotary  kiln;  but  conditions  rarely  justify  this. 

Examples  and  Relations. — The  most  important  single  instance 
of  a  workable  gossan  deposit  in  the  United  States,  from  a  tonnage 
standpoint,  is  afforded  by  the  ores  of  the  Ducktown  district  in 
southeastern  Tennessee.  Next  to  this  in  industrial  importance 
are  the  ores  mined  at  various  points  along  the  Great  Gossan  Lead 
in  southwestern  Virginia. 

But  in  other  ways  the  gossan  deposits  are  of  still  greater 
interest  to  the  iron  industry.  They  are  closely  related  to  other 
types  of  iron-ore  deposits,  and  in  many  cases  no  hard-and-fast 
line  can  be  drawn  between  them.  The  solution  residuals,  next 
to  be  discussed,  will  furnish  examples  of  this  inter-relationship. 

1  Alteration  of  pyrite  to  hematite  occurs  but  not  in  any  quantity 
under  weathering  conditions. 


94  IRON  ORES 

RESIDUAL  DEPOSITS 

During  the  processes  of  rock  weathering  and  rock  decay,  some 
of  the  constituents  of  the  rock  are  carried  off  in  solution,  while  the 
others  remain  behind  as  a  mass  of  residual  material.  All  rocks 
contain  iron,  and  under  favorable  conditions  enough  iron  may 
remain  in  the  residual  to  form  a  workable  iron-ore  deposit.  This 
will  depend  largely  upon  the  percentage  of  iron  contained  by  the 
original  rock,  upon  the  form  in  which  this  contained  iron  existed, 
and  upon  the  conditions  under  which  weathering  took  place. 

General  Factors  Involved. — The  influence  of  these  factors  may 
be  summarized  as  follows : 

(1)  Other  things  being  equal,  the  more  iron  contained  in  the 
original  rock,  the  more  chance  that  sufficient  iron  will  be  left 
behind  to  form  a  workable  residual  ore  deposit.     Stated  in  this 
way,  it  would  seem  obvious  that  the  basic  igneous  rocks,  or  iron- 
rich  sediments,  are  the   most   likely  to  yield  residual  iron-ore 
deposits.     But  the  qualification,  other  things  being  equal,  must  be 
borne  in  mind;  and  when  this  is  taken  into  account  it  will   be 
found  that  original  richness  in  iron  is  not  the  most  important 
factor  in  the  case. 

(2)  When  the  iron  is  present  as  an  oxide  mineral — magnetite, 
hematite,  limonite,  etc. — it  is  relatively  resistant  to  solution,  and 
may  therefore  easily  remain  in  the  residual  mass.     Iron  present 
as  a  constituent  of  a  silicate  mineral,  being  in  the  ferrous  form,  is 
more  likely  to  be  carried  off  in  solution;  but  even  in  this  case  it 
may  be  re-deposited  before  it  is  moved  far  from  its  original 
location. 

(3)  Heavy    rainfall,   heavy    plant-growth    and  an  abundant 
supply  of  percolating  waters — three  conditions  which  normally 
occur  together — favor  both  the  solution  and  the  transportation 
of  iron,  whatever  may  have  been  its  original  form  of  occurrence. 
If  the  percolating  waters,  after  being  charged  with  dissolved  iron 
salts,  are  allowed  to  escape  freely  from  the  residual  mass  and  join 
an  exterior  drainage  system,  there  will  be  no  opportunity  for  the 
formation  of  a  residual  ore  deposit.     But  if  such  free  escape  is 
hindered,  the  iron  may  be  re-deposited  within  the  residual  mass 
itself,  concentrating  at  locally  favorable  points. 

Certain  phases  of  the  matter  may  now  be  taken  up  in  more 
detail,  for  we  are  dealing  with  a  very  important  group  of  iron 


ALTERATION  DEPOSITS 


95 


deposits,  ranking  second  only  to  the  sedimentary  deposits  in 
their  extent  and  tonnage.  It  will  be  best  to  direct  attention 
first  to  that  type  of  residual  deposit  in  which  the  mere  removal  of 
the  enclosing  rock  may  be  considered  to  have  been  the  most 
important  step  in  the  process  of  origin. 

Solution  Residuals. — In  the  eastern  and  southeastern  United 
States,  and  for  that  matter  in  many  other  portions  of  the  world, 
brown-ore  deposits  of  somewhat  uniform  type  are  encountered. 
They  are  not  bog  ores,  for  they  show  no  evidence  whatever  of 
having  been  deposited  in  water  basins.  They  are  not,  in  their 
present  form  at  least,  ordinary  replacement  deposits,  for  they 
occur  chiefly  as  masses  and  fragments  of  brown  ore  enclosed  by 
and  associated  with  residual  clays.  In  most  cases  the  mixture 
of  ore  and  clay  is  underlain  at  some  relatively  shallow  depth  (20 
to  150  feet)  by  solid  limestone,  and  the  ore-body  is  usually  covered 
by  deposits  of  quite  recent  sands  and  gravels. 


FIG.  17. — Typical  residual  brown-ore  deposit. 

In  discussing  the  origin  of  these  deposits  it  must  be  premised 
that  the  limestones  on  which  they  now  rest  once  outcropped  at 
elevations  high  above  the  present  level  and  that  these  limestones 
have  been  reduced  to  their  present  level  largely  by  simple  solution. 
Water  has  dissolved  and  carried  off  the  lime  carbonate,  leaving 
behind  the  clayey  matter  once  contained  in  the  limestones.  This 
residual  clayey  matter  now  appears  as  the  sticky  clay  with  which 
the  ores  are  so  closely  associated  and  in  which  they  are  often 
actually  embedded. 

The  following  analyses  of  the  limestone  associated  with  brown 
ore  from  an  Alabama  district  are  of  service  in  the  present  con- 
nection : 


96 


IRON  ORES 


ANALYSES  OF  LIMESTONE  AND  RESIDUAL  CLAY  BELOW  BROWN-ORE 

AT  HOUSTON  MINE 
[Analyst,  R.  S.  Hodges,  Alabama  Geological  Survey] 


Si02 

AhOi 

Fe20s 

FeO 

Ti02  1    CaO    MgO 

Na2O 

K20      C02 

H2O 

Unweathered 
limestone. 
Weathered 
limestone. 
Residual  clay  . 

12.34 
27.75 
55.92 

1.34 
6.57 
25.24 

0.77 
1.62 
5.10 

.... 

0.27 
0.30 

0.11 
0.39 
1.21 

44.34 
29.69 
0.10 

2.54 
3.02 
1.61 

0.24 
0.23 
0.43 

0.76 
3.53 

2.48 

35.20 

22.84 



1.87 
4.19 
9.00 

An  average  analysis  of  the  whole  series  of  limestones  composing 
the  original  formation,  if  one  could  be  obtained,  would  un- 
doubtedly show  that  the  average  rock  is  a  very  impure  lime- 
stone. Such  a  rock,  when  subjected  to  weathering  agencies, 
would  give  rise  to  the  formation  of  thick  deposits  of  residual 
material,  this  residual  representing  the  insoluble  portions  of  the 
original  mass.  As  it  is  often  assumed  that  this  action  would  of 
itself  give  rise  to  the  formation  of  brown-ore  deposits,  it  is  worth 
while  to  determine  just  what  would  happen  in  such  a  case. 

Assume  a  limestone  of  the  following  composition: 


Insoluble  residuum : 

SiO2 

A1203 

Fe2O3.. 


Soluble  carbonate: 

CaCO3 

MgCO3 


2.5 

1.0 

. .. .   0.5 

4.0 

94.0 

. . .     2.0 

96.0 


A  horizontal  bed  100  feet  thick  of  this  limestone,  if  the  carbon- 
ates are  removed  by  solution,  would  evidently  yield  a  4-foot  bed 
of  insoluble  residual  material.  But  this  would  in  all  probability 
be  a  4-foot  bed  of  clay  of  about  the  following  composition : 


SiO2 

A12O3 

Fe203 

Water,  etc. . 


56.25 
22.50 
11.25 
10.00 


100.00 
The  point  to  be  kept  in  mind  is  that  this  residual  will  be  a  clay, 


ALTERATION  DEPOSITS 


97 


and  that  the  iron  of  the  original  limestone  will  be  present  in  this 
clay  largely  in  the  form  of  minute  particles  of  iron-silicate  minerals 
or  as  fine  scattered  particles  of  iron  oxide.  It  will  not  be  present 
as  a  distinct  mass  or  bed  of  brown  ore.  The  matter  hardly  seems 
to  require  much  discussion,  but  many  theories  of  the  origin  of 
brown  ores  tacitly  assume  that  the  iron  of  the  original  limestone 
appears  in  the  residual  mass  as  brown  ore.  A  theory  of  this  type 
would  of  course  imply  that  100  feet  of  the  limestone  above  dis- 
cussed would  by  its  decay  give  rise  to  a  bed  J  foot  thick  of 
brown  ore. 


FIG.  18. — Brown-ore    deposit,    Vesuvius,    Va.     (Harder.) 

It  can  therefore  be  set  down  as  an  axiom  that  the  decay  of  a 
limestone  carrying  slight  percentages  of  disseminated  iron  mate- 
rials can  never  of  itself  yield  a  deposit  of  brown  ore.  The  decay 
of  the  limestone  may  be  a  very  important  step  in  the  formation 
of  such  a  deposit,  but  it  can  never  be  the  only  step.  There  must 
also  be  some  process  by  which  the  iron  is  concentrated,  either  in 
the  original  limestone  or  in  the  residual  material.  In  the  opinion 
of  the  writer  this  concentration  usually  takes  place  in  the  lime- 
stone before  its  decay,  though  in  some  cases  it  evidently  has 
occurred  in  the  residual.  In  the  Woodstock  district,  for  example, 
the  bulk  of  the  deposits  appear  to  have  been  formed  by  the  solu- 
tion of  a  limestone  in  which  seams  and  stringers  of  brown  ore  had 

7 


98  IRON  ORES 

been  deposited  prior  to  its  weathering.  In  the  Russellville  and 
middle  Tennessee  deposits  the  evidence  is  still  more  conclusive, 
for  in  those  areas  such  primary  deposits  of  iron  carbonate  and 
brown  ore  have  been  found  in  the  unaltered  limestone. 

In  some  cases,  then,  we  may  conclude  that  these  brown  ores 
were  originally  deposited  as  replacements  or  fillings  in  a  lime- 
stone, and  that  the  present  deposit  is  due  solely  to  the  removal 
of  the  enclosing  limestone  by  surface  solution.  In  other  cases 
there  seems  to  be  good  evidence  that  some  or  all  of  the  brown 
ore  has  originated  during  or  after  the  weathering  process  took 
place;  so  that  in  addition  to  the  purely  residual  action  there  has 
been  actual  chemical  rearrangement  of  even  the  less  soluble 
constituents  of  the  original  rocks.  Such  re-deposition  leaves  us 
directly  to  another  important  type  of  residual  deposits,  which 
may  conveniently  be  called  laterite  deposits. 

Laterite  Residuals. — In  discussing  normal  replacements  it  was 
noted  that,  living  in  temperate  regions,  we  are  accustomed  to 
regard  limestone  as  the  only  rock  which  weathers  deeply  and 
shows  great  solvent  effects;  but  that  in  reality  there  were  certain 
climatic  factors  which  made  this  simple  rule  less  useful  and  finally 
worthless  as  the  tropical  regions  were  entered. 

Clarke  has  summarized1  the  matter  very  concisely:  "In 
tropical  and  sub-tropical  regions  the  processes  of  rock  decay  are 
often  carried  further  than  is  usually  the  case  within  the  tem- 
perate zones.  The  leaching  is  more  complete,  the  silicates  are 
more  thoroughly  decomposed,  and  the  residues  are  richer  in 
hydroxides." 

It  is  with  the  character  of  these  residual  materials  that  we 
have  at  present  to  deal. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once  that  this  is  a  very  important  point  in 
connection  with  the  formation  of  residual  iron-ore  deposits,  for  it 
offers  a  very  wide  range  of  original  rocks  from  which  such  residual 
deposits  may  be  formed.  So  long  as  we  are  dealing  with  weather- 
ing as  it  occurs  in  temperate  climates,  we  must  be  prepared  to 
accept  limestone  as  the  only  rock  which  can  be  readily  dissolved 
by  surface  waters  so  as  to  leave  an  important  amount  of  residual 
iron.  Any  other  rock  would,  under  normal  conditions,  leave 
behind  far  more  silica  than  iron,  so  that  the  residual  would  be 
worthless  as  an  ore. 

1  Bulletin  330,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  p.  417. 


ALTERATION  DEPOSITS  99 

But  in  dealing  with  tropical  weathering,  under  such  conditions 
that  surficial  waters  can  easily  remove  silica  in  solution,  the  case 
is  quite  different.  A  large  number  of  rocks  normally  contain 
sufficient  iron  to  yield  workable  deposits  provided  the  silica  left 
in  the  residual  is  small.  The  more  basic  igneous  rocks,  and  the 
serpentine  which  is  a  characteristic  basic  alteration  product, 
contain  high  percentages  of  iron,  along  with  other  constituents — 
most  commonly  silica,  alumina,  magnesia  and  lime.  Under 
tropical  weathering  all  of  these  constituents  except  the  alumina 
and  iron  are  removable.  The  resulting  residual  will  therefore 
contain  chiefly  brown  ore  (iron  hydroxide),  or  bauxite  (aluminum 
hydroxide)  or  more  commonly  a  mixture  of  both. 

As  to  the  rock  whose  decay  furnishes  these  deposits,  it  can  be 
said  that  the  brown  ores  of  the  north  coast  of  Cuba  are  residual 
from  serpentine;  and  that  the  same  is  true  of  some  minor  deposits 
in  the  United  States.  On  the  other  hand,  the  bauxite  deposits  of 
Arkansas  are  residual  from  nepheline-syenite,  and  some  of  the 
foreign  bauxites  from  still  more  basic  massive  igneous  rocks. 

The  chief  hydrated  oxides  found  in  tropical  residual  material 
are  of  course  those  of  aluminum  and  iron;  and  the  ore  deposits 
which  are  formed  are  characteristically  highly  aluminous  iron 
ores,  mixtures  of  bauxite  and  brown  ore,  or  even  deposits  of 
relatively  pure  bauxite.  Limiting  consideration  to  the  deposits 
in  which  the  iron  is  the  chief  ore,  it  can  be  said  that  the  ores 
whose  origin  is  due  to  processes  of  this  type  are  characteristically 
high  in  alumina,  low  in  silica  and  phosphorus,  usually  low  in 
sulphur,  and  frequently  high  (for  iron  ores)  in  nickel,  copper  and 
chromium.  All  of  these  features  are  traceable  to  the  composition 
of  the  original  rock. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
IGNEOUS  DEPOSITS 

In  discussing  contact  deposits  (pp.  86-88)  it  was  found  that 
igneous  action  might  contribute  toward  the  formation  of  an  ore 
deposit  indirectly,  through  the  heat  supply  which  it  furnished, 
even  if  the  igneous  rock  did  not  necessarily  furnish  all  or  any 
portion  of  the  iron.  There  are,  however,  large  deposits  of  iron 
ore  which  have  been  ascribed  to  direct  igneous  action,  and  these 
will  be  discussed  in  the  present  chapter. 

The  present  group  includes  those  cases  where  iron  minerals, 
in  workable  quantities,  are  found  as  original  constituents  of  a 
mass  of  igneous  rock.  The  fact  that  it  is  theoretically  possible 
for  this  to  occur  seems  to  exercise  a  peculiar  fascination  over  the 
geologic  mind,  and  igneous  iron  deposits  therefore  occupy  a 
greater  space  in  the  literature  of  iron  ores  than  is  warranted  by 
either  their  geologic  or  industrial  importance.  No  iron-ore  de- 
posits at  present  worked  in  the  United  States  can  be  ascribed 
with  certainty  to  this  group,  though  it  is  possible  that  some  of 
our  eastern  magnetites  should  be  included.  By  common  consent 
most  of  the  titaniferous  magnetites  are  placed  in  this  group. 

All  igneous  rocks,  as  has  been  noted  earlier  in  this  volume, 
contain  iron  as  one  constituent.  Usually  their  iron  percentage 
is  not  remarkably  high,  and  the  iron  does  not  occur  in  the  oxide 
form  but  as  a  constituent  of  various  silicate  minerals.  In  the 
more  basic  rocks,  however,  iron  becomes  of  more  importance; 
and  as  its  percentage  increases  there  is  more  possibility  that  part 
of  it,  at  least,  will  not  combine  with  silica  but  will  crystallize  out 
separately  as  iron  oxide,  taking  the  form  of  either  hematite  or 
magnetite.  In  rare  cases  masses  or  areas  of  igneous  rock  might 
be  found  in  which  there  is  enough  of  this  disseminated  iron  oxide 
to  justify  mining  and  concentration. 

Magmatic  segregations  differ  from  the  disseminated  igneous  ore 
deposits  in  degree  of  concentration  rather  than  in  mode  of  origin. 
The  principal  reason  for  mentioning  them  separately  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  term  magmatic  segregation  has  an  established  and 
definite  status  as  applied  to  certain  types  of  sulphide  ores. 

100 


IGNEO US  DEPOSITS  ''-  101  - 

It  is  conceivable  that  during  the  cooling  of  a  mass  of  fused 
rock,  the  more  basic  constituents  might  be  separated  to  some 
degree  from  the  more  acid  portions.  There  would  thus  arise  a 
segregation  within  the  fused  mass  of  magma  itself,  and  this  might 
reach  the  point  where  the  basic  portion,  on  cooling,  would 
contain  workable  deposits  of  iron  ore. 

A  modification  of  the  magmatic  segregation  theory  requires 
note,  for  it  disposes  of  certain  of  the  objections  which  are  based 
upon  the  physical  relations  of  the  ore-bodies  and  their  enclosing 
rocks.  It  is  suggested  later  that  it  is  difficult  to  reconcile 
the  frequently  tabular  shape  and  linear  arrangement  of  ore 
masses  with  the  idea  that  they  were  magmatic  segregations.  If, 
however,  we  assume  that  the  ores  were  introduced  into  a  slightly 
earlier  and  therefore  partly  cooled  magma,  some  of  these  diffi- 
culties become  less  important;  and  this  is  the  ground  taken  by 
Stutzer  and  other  who  ascribe  some  of  the  Scandinavian  and  other 
magnetites  to  formation,  not  as  direct  magmatic  segregations  in 
place,  but  as  magmatic  dikes. 

Criteria  for  Recognition. — It  will  be  worth  while,  before  dis- 
cussing the  deposits  which  have  been  ascribed  to  direct  igneous 
origin,  to  make  some  attempt  to  determine  the  points  in  which 
such  igneous  deposits  are  likely  to  differ  from  contact  deposits 
or  other  forms.  If  any  definite  criteria  for  the  recognition  of 
igneous  deposits  can  be  established,  they  will  of  course  be  im- 
mediately serviceable  in  determining  whether  or  not  any  particu- 
lar deposit  is  of  igneous  origin.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  found 
that  the  best  criteria  available  are  indefinite  or  uncertain,  this 
fact  also  will  be  of  service,  as  a  warning  against  assigning  ores  too 
hastily  to  the  igneous  class. 

It  would  seem  probable  that,  if  magmatic  segregation  ever 
resulted  in  the  formation  of  a  workable  deposit  of  iron  ore,  this 
deposit  would  have  something  distinctive  and  suggestive  of  its 
origin;  and  that  the  distinctions  would  be  related  to  the  kind 
of  rocks  with  which  the  deposit  was  associated,  the  form  of  the 
deposit,  the  character  of  its  boundaries,  or  the  composition  of 
the  ores  contained. 

As  regards  the  first  point,  the  deposit  would  of  course  be  asso- 
ciated with  igneous  rocks,  and  almost  certainly  with  highly  basic 
igneous  rocks.  For  the  chemical  difficulties  associated  with  ig- 
neous origin,  great  at  the  best,  become  still  greater  as  the  parent 


102  IRON  ORES 


rock  becomes  more  acid.  If,  in  the  course  of  field  examination, 
we  find  a  magnetite  deposit  associated  with  an  acid  igneous  rock, 
that  fact  would  tend  to  bear  somewhat  against  the  possible 
igneous  origin  of  the  iron  ore,  so  that  the  other  lines  of  evidence 
would  have  to  be  a  little  stronger  to  make  up  for  this  defect. 
Further,  if  the  deposit  is  associated,  not  with  certain  igneous 
rocks,  but  with  gneisses  whose  origin  is  open  to  the  least  question, 
our  conclusions  as  to  the  igneous  origin  of  the  ore  are  weakened 
by  just  that  much. 

The  form  taken  by  a  body  of  iron  oxide  segregating  from  a 
molten  magma  would  be  spheroidal  if  temperature  and  pressure 


,-•  \ 


t;".-.|  Magnetite 


FIG.  19. — Scandinavian  ore  deposits  showing  linear  arrangement  of  mag- 
netic ore-bodies.  (Stiitzer.) 

were  equal  on  all  sides;  under  actual  conditions  it  would  be  prob- 
ably irregular;  but  there  is  no  serious  chance  that  at  the  outset  it 
would  take  the  form  of  a  thin  sheet,  simulating  sedimentary 
bedding.  It  is  true  that  later  metamorphism  might  squeeze 
one  deposit  into  this  shape,  but  if  we  find  a  series  of  thin  deposits, 
parallel  to  each  other,  the  probability  is  that  they  are  not  of 
direct  igneous  origin. 

As  regards  its  boundaries,  it  is  certain  that  a  magmatic  segre- 
gation would  grade  imperceptibly  on  all  sides  into  the  parent 
rock.  If  our  field  occurrence  is  not  entirely  enclosed  by  igneous 
rocks,  but  lies  along  their  contact,  or  if  it  shows  sharp  and  definite 
boundaries  on  foot  and  hanging  walls,  it  would  seem  best  to  seek 
some  other  mode  of  origin. 

One  of  the  most  convincing  of  proofs,  to  which  we  commonly 
refer  in  determining  the  igneous  origin  of  a  rock-mass,  is  from  the 


IGNEOUS  DEPOSITS  103 

nature  of  the  case  not  applicable  to  determining  the  origin  of  an 
iron  body.  Reference  is  made  to  igneous  contact  effects,  both 
chemical  and  physical.  -Except  where  we  are  dealing  with  a 
dike-like  mass  of  ore,  the  presumed  magmatic  ore  would  never 
be  in  the  proper  place  to  show  these  effects  satisfactorily, 

The  ore  itself  will  be  a  crystalline  magnetite  or  hematite, 
probably  very  low  in  phosphorus,  and  possibly  high  in  sulphur. 
It  might  also  fairly  be  expected  to  be  high  in  titanium,  chromium, 
nickel,  copper,  or  scarcer  metals.  If  our  field  example  shows 
high  phosphorus  the  probabilities  of  its  igneous  origin  are  less- 
ened; and  if  the  phosphorus  is  present  as  separate  crystalline 
grains  of  lime  phosphate,  the  difficulties  become  very  great. 

Summarizing  these  points,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  criteria 
developed  are  largely  negative.  Even  when  dealing  with  igneous 
activity  of  recent  date,  it  will  often  be  difficult  to  discriminate 
between  magmatic  segregations  and  contact  deposits;  and  when 
dealing  with  old  and  highly  metamorphosed  rocks  the  uncer- 
tainties will  be  far  greater.  Under  these  circumstances  it  seems 
safest  to  assume  that  the  burden  of  proof  is  always  heavily  against 
the  direct  igneous  origin  of  any  given  ore-body. 

Chief  Possible  Occurrences. — There  are,  of  course,  very  wide 
differences  of  opinion  among  geologists  as  to  what  great  iron-ore 


KING   OS'KAR  MINE 


White  portion  indicates  Surrounding  Pock. 
Black       ••  "  Magnetite. 


FIG.  20. — Scandinavian  ore-bodies  showing  tabular  or  linear  arrangement 
of  magnetite  bodies.  (Stiitzer.) 


deposits,  if  any,  should  be  considered  as  of  probable  or  certain 
magmatic  origin.  This  condition  prevents  any  very  precise  or 
definite  statement  as  to  the  chief  occurrences  of  possible  or 
probable  igneous  ores.  It  may  be  said,  however,  that  there  are 
a  number  of  instances  in  which  there  is  either  substantial  agree- 
ment among  most  geologists,  or  firm  conviction  of  the  part  of  a 
few  whose  standing  is  sufficient  to  warrant  consideration. 


104  IRON  ORES 

The  principal  instances  falling  in  these  classes  are  (1)  the  high 
titanium  magnetites  associated  with  basic  rocks  in  many  parts 
of  the  world;  (2)  most  of  the  higher  grade  magnetites  of  Scan- 
dinavia; (3)  many  of  the  magnetites  of  the  eastern  United  States 
and  Canada. 

It  will  be  recognized  immediately  that  the  proof,  with  regard 
to  the  different  instances  above  listed,  is  not  of  the  same  grade 
or  character.  Perhaps  it  would  be  fair  to  say  that  it  is  very 
convincing  with  regard  to  most  of  the  titaniferous  ores;  that  it  is 
less  certain  with  regard  to  the  Scandinavian  magnetites;  and 
that  it  is  quite  weak  indeed  as  far  as  the  Adirondack  and  other 
non-titaniferous  American  magnetites  are  concerned. 

THE  TITANIFEROUS  MAGNETITES. 

Since  the  titaniferous  iron  ores  form  the  only  large  class  on 
which  opinion  as  to  their  magmatic  origin  is  substantially  in  ac- 
cord, it  will  be  well  to  discuss  in  some  detail  the  facts  as  to  their 
geologic  associations,  the  form  and  relations  of  the  ore-bodies, 
and  the  general  character  of  the  ores.  There  is  the  more  reason 
for  doing  this  in  the  present  place  because,  as  the  titaniferous 
ores  are  not  at  present  commercial  raw  materials,  little  attention 
will  be  given  to  them  in  the  later  chapters  on  the  occurence  of 
the  iron  ores  of  the  world. 

Associated  Rocks. — With  few  exceptions,  not  sufficient  to 
invalidate  the  general  rule,  the  titaniferous  iron  ores  are  asso- 
ciated with  very  basic  igneous  rocks.  Kemp  states  that  normally 
these  are  of  the  general  types  of  gabbros;  and  range  through 
anorthosites,  gabbros,  norites,  diabases  and  peridotites.  The 
exceptional  instances  above  noted  are  associated  with  somewhat 
more  acid  rocks — the  nepheline  syenites.  The  following  analyses, 
quoted  from  Kemp,  will  serve  to  give  some  idea  of  the  general 
chemical  character  of  the  enclosing  rocks. 

ANALYSES  OF  WALL-ROCKS,  TITANIFEROUS  ORES 


8.36  10.20 

7.10  5.34 

....  0.81  0.95 

....  2.75  2.47 

Alumina 18.90     12.46 

1  Split  Rock  mine,  New  York.     W.  H.  Hillebrand,  anal.  19th  Ann.  Rep 
U.  S.  G.  S.,  pt.  3,  page  402. 

2  Lincoln  Pond,  N.  Y.     G.  Steiger,  anal.     Same,  p   407  •" 


0)       (2) 

Ferric  oxide  

.  .      1  .  39       4  .  63 

Lime  

Ferrous  oxide.  .  .  . 

.  .    10.45     12.99 

Magnesia  . 

Titanic  oxide.  .  .  . 

..      1.20       5.26 

Potash  .  .  . 

Silica.. 

.   47.88     44.77 

Soda  

IGNEOUS  DEPOSITS  105 

Form  and  Relations  of  Ore-body. — The  known  deposits  of 
titaniferous  ores  occur  mostly  in  masses  of  irregular  shape, 
enclosed  entirely  within  bodies  of  gabbro.  Occasionally  the  ore 
penetrates  the  igneous  rock  in  sharply  edged  dikes,  but  normally 
the  ore  grades  on  every  side  gradually  into  the  enclosing  igneous 
rock. 

Composition  and  Character  of  the  Ores. — The  titaniferous 
ores  of  magmatic  origin  are  predominantly  mixtures  of  magnetite 
and  ilmenite,  with  of  course  more  or  less  of  gangue  material. 
The  latter,  being  simply  portions  of  the  associated  igneous  rock, 
consists  of  various  minerals  such  as  augite,  the  basic  feldspars, 
etc.  When  free  from  gangue  the  ore  is  normally  very  low  in 
phosphorus  and  usually  low  in  sulphur;  vanadium  and  chromium 
are  commonly  present  in  traces  at  least;  manganese  is  low,  and 
somewhat  unexpectedly  copper  and  nickel  are  rarely  present. 
Taken  as  a  whole  the  titaniferous  ores  are  rich  in  iron,  even  allow- 
ing for  the  titanium  present;  and  they  are  usually  more  massive 
and  naturally  concentrated  than  the  non-titaniferous  magnetites. 

Bibliography  of  Titaniferous  Ores. — The  subject  of  the  titanif- 
erous ores  is  one  of  much  interest  from  the  purely  geologic  stand- 
point, and  it  seems  probable  that  in  the  near  future  it  may  become 
of  serious  commercial  importance.  A  large  number  of  papers 
and  reports  refer  to  it,  in  one  way  or  another,  but  no  attempt  has 
been  made  to  prepare  a  complete  bibliography.  The  few  papers 
listed  below  are  all  important,  and  all  very  complete  within  their 
respective  limits.  They  are,  moreover,  readily  accessible  to  most 
engineers,  and  contain  references  to  other  literature  which  will 
facilitate  further  study  of  the  subject. 

Kemp,  J.  F.  The  titaniferous  iron  ores  of  the  Adirondacks.  19th  Ann. 
Rep.  U.  S.  Geol  Survey,  pt.  Ill,  pp.  377-422.  1899. 

Kemp,  J.  F.  A  brief  review  of  the  titaniferous  magnetites  School  of 
Mines  Quarterly,  vol.  XX,  pp.  323-356;  vol.  XXI,  pp.  56-65.  1899. 

Newland,  D.  H.  Geology  o  the  Adirondack  magnetic  iron  ores.  Bulletin 
119,  New  York  State  Museum.  1908 

Singewald,  J.  T.  The  titaniferous  iron  ores  in  the  United  States.  Bulletin 
64,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Mines.  1913. 


PART  II.— THE  VALUATION  OF  IRON  ORE 
PROPERTIES 

CHAPTER  IX 
THE  BASAL  FACTORS  IN  ORE  VALUATION 

Determining  the  value  of  a  given  amount  of  iron  ore,  whether 
that  amount  be  a  small  mined  tonnage  ready  for  market  or  a 
large  unmined  reserve,  is  a  matter  which  involves  very  compli- 
cated industrial  and  commercial  relations.  In  the  present 
volume  all  of  Part  II  is  devoted  to  various  phases  of  this  subject; 
and  in  order  that  the  general  bearing  of  this  mass  of  details  may 
be  clearly  understood,  a  brief  introductory  chapter  is  necessary 
to  summarize  the  subject. 

General  Bases  of  Property  Valuation. — In  attempting  to 
place  a  value  upon  a  large  iron-ore  property,  or  group  of  proper- 
ties, we  have  first  of  all  to  consider  the  reason  for  which  the 
valuation  is  being  made,  and  the  use  to  which  it  will  be  put;  for 
these  factors  will  have  an  important  influence  on  both  the  general 
methods  and  the  details  of  the  valuation.  At  first  sight  this 
statement  may  seem  unsound,  for  it  may  be  held  that  the  value 
of  a  given  piece  of  property  is  a  fixed  and  definite  matter,  and 
that  all  logically  correct  methods  should  give  the  same  results. 
Closer  examination  of  the  question,  however,  will  prove  that 
valuations  are  not  of  themselves  definitely  fixed,  that  they  will 
vary  greatly  according  to  circumstances,  and  that  this  condition 
is  not  confined  to  the  particular  type  of  properties  now  under 
discussion,  but  is  common  to  all  the  affairs  of  business  life. 

Whatever  type  of  property  we  may  consider,  whether  land, 
buildings,  securities,  or  iron  ores,  there  will  inevitably  be  found 
to  exist  at  least  two  separate  and  distinct  methods  of  valuation, 
which  may  give  more  or  less  widely  different  results.  Each  of 
these  methods  is  logically  sound,  each  may  be  financially  correct, 
and  the  choice  between  them  will  depend  entirely  upon  the 
reason  for  which  the  valuation  is  being  made.  If  it  is  to  be  used 

106 


THE  BASAL  FACTORS  IN  ORE  VALUATION     107 

as  a  basis  for  buying  or  selling  the  property  at  any  particular 
time,  we  will  be  concerned  only  with  the  market  or  re-placement 
value  of  such  a  property.  But  if  the  property  is  to  be  put  to  a 
definite  use  by  its  present  owners,"  and  if  by  this  use  it  will  bring 
in  larger  profits  than  its  present  selling  or  re-placement  price 
might  indicate,  the  owners  are  fairly  justified  in  taking  this  fact 
into  account,  and  in  assuming  that  to  them  the  property  has  really 
this  higher  value  due  to  expected  profits.  It  is  to  be  borne  in 
mind,  however,  that  such  higher  value  should  never  be  considered 
as  being  more  than  a  matter  of  personal  interest.  The  owner 
is  entirely  justified  in  relying  upon  it,  for  in  the  long  run  his 
earnings  from  it  will  be  enough  to  cover  the  advance,  but  he 
would  not  be  justified  in  attempting  to  borrow  on  the  property 
at  this  higher  value,  or  in  expecting  to  realize  that  value  at 
forced  sale. 

One  fact  remains  to  be  noted,  though  to  business  men  it  will 
seem  so  obvious  as  to  be  hardly  worth  mention.  Recent  events 
have  shown,  however,  that  what  may  seem  obvious  to  business 
men  may  be  an  impenetrable  mystery  to  lawgivers,  and  for  this 
reason  it  may  be  profitable  not  only  to  mention  but  to  emphasize 
this  very  commonplace  statement.  The  value  of  property  is  not 
fixed  or  determined  in  any  way  by  its  original  cost.  It  is  perfectly 
true  that  the  cost  of  a  property,  plus  carrying  charges,  represents 
the  least  price  which  the  present  owner  can  accept  without 
losing  money.  But  it  neither  guarantees  that  he  can  secure  this 
price,  nor  makes  it  either  reprehensible  or  foolish  to  ask  a  higher 
price,  if  the  property  has  actually  increased  in  value  during  the 
period  of  his  ownership.  Very  few  people,  even  in  Congress, 
would  question  this  statement  as  applied  to  the  value  of  a  farm 
owned  by  a  constituent.  When  it  comes,  however,  to  the 
question  of  placing  a  valuation  on  a  railroad,  a  mine,  or  a  mill 
owned  by  a  corporation,  the  matter  for  some  reason  appears  to 
take  on  a  different  aspect.  Of  course  in  the  case  of  public 
utilities  there  is  some  reason  for  this  change  in  view,  but  this  is 
not  true  in  the  case  of  manufacturing  or  mining  properties, 
whether  owned  by  corporations  or  by  individuals. 

Valuation  of  Ore  Reserves. — Up  to  this  point  the  matter  of 
valuation  has  been  discussed  in  an  entirely  general  manner,  and 
the  principles  which  have  been  referred  to  can  be  applied  in  the 
valuation  of  any  kind  of  property.  The  exact  manner  in  which 


108  IRON  ORES 

they  are  applied,  and  the  data  which  must  be  introduced  in  order 
to  secure  accurate  results,  will  of  cpurse  differ  according  to  the 
type  of  property  which  is  under  consideration.  At  present  we 
are  concerned  with  the  valuation  of  iron-ore  properties,  and  with 
this  in  view  it  is  possible  to  state  certain  features  of  the  problem 
in  detail,  and  to  suggest  fairly  close  limits  for  the  various  factors 
which  are  involved  in  the  valuation  of  this  type  of  property. 

At  the  outset,  one  point  must  be  firmly  impressed.  It  is  true 
that  in  placing  a  value  on  an  iron-ore  property  we  may  often 
properly  consider  it  as  merely  the  valuation  of  real  estate,  and 
apply  some  of  the  principles  on  which  ordinary  land  is  commonly 
valued.  But  it  is  real  estate  of  a  very  special  kind,  and  in  most 
cases  it  owes  all  its  value  to  the  rate  at  which  it  will  be  used  and 
exhausted.  At  times,  it  is  true,  there  will  remain  a  certain  realty 
value  for  the  land  after  its  iron  ore  has  been  exhausted;  and  in 
some  instances  the  land  can  be  used  for  other  purposes  before 
iron-ore  mining  has  been  commenced.  But  in  by  far  the  majority 
of  cases  the  iron  property  is  a  dead  burden  until  ore  production 
has  started,  and  is  absolutely  valueless  after  it  has  ceased. 
Under  these  circumstances  there  is  usually  little  need  to  consider 
such  questions  as  surface  rentals  or  surface  land  values;  and  the 
unit  of  valuation  must  be  the  ton  of  ore  and  not  the  acre  of  land. 
And,  as  will  be  seen  later,  time  is  as  important  a  factor  as  tonnage 
in  determining  the  total  present  value  of  the  property. 

In  an  earlier  section  of  this  chapter  it  was  pointed  out  that  the 
reasons  for  the  valuation,  and  the  intentions  of  the  owner,  would 
each  have  an  effect  on  the  methods  to  be  followed  and  on  the 
results  that  would  be  obtained.  It  seems  clear,  for  example, 
that  if  the  purpose  of  the  valuation  is  the  issue  of  bonds  against 
the  property,  a  proper  regard  for  the  security  of  these  bonds  will 
involve  valuation  on  a  strict  market  basis,  as  nearly  as  such 
basis  can  be  determined.  On  the  other  hand  it  seems  equally 
clear  that  if  the  owner  has  arranged  to  have  the  ore  mined  on  a 
royalty  basis,  the  rate  of  extraction,  the  rate  of  royalty,  and  other 
features  of  the  agreement  must  be  taken  into  consideration  in 
arriving  at  a  proper  valuation.  To  me  it  seems  that  in  some  cases 
we  may  go  even  further  than  this,  and  equitably  capitalize  a 
portion  of  the  smelting  profits  when  the  owner  of  the  ore  land 
expects  to  use  the  ore  in  his  own  furnaces. 

There  are  thus  three  different  bases  on  which  the  valuation  of 


THE  BASAL  FACTORS  IN  ORE  VALUATION     109 

an  iron  ore  property  may  be  placed.  For  convenience  these  may 
be  briefly  described,  in  an  order  different  from  that  in  which  they 
are  noted  above,  as : 

1.  Capitalization  of  Smelting  Profits.  2.  Capitalization  of 
Royalties  or  Mining  Profits.  3.  Market  or  Replacement  Valuation. 

Each  of  these  is  logically  sound,  under  certain  conditions, 
though  each  method  will  give  a  different  final  result.  It  is  there- 
fore advisable  to  consider  them  separately,  to  state  the  conditions 
under  which  the  different  methods  are  available,  and  to  give 
some  idea  of  the  different  results  which  will  be  obtained  by  their 
use. 

Capitalization  of  Smelting  Profits. — The  method  of  valuation 
to  be  considered  under  this  head  will  undoubtedly  be  looked  upon 
as  highly  unsound,  when  applied  to  iron  mining,  though  it  will  be 
the  merest  commonplace  to  anyone  engaged  in  mining  copper, 
lead,  silver,  or  gold  ores.  We  have,  in  other  words,  to  deal  with 
a  method  of  valuation  which  is  logically  sound  and  defensible 
under  certain  conditions;  which  is  universally  adopted  in  valuing 
all  mining  property  except  iron  mines;  but  which  has  never  to  my 
knowledge,  been  suggested  for  use  in  iron  mining.  It  is  not  here 
recommended  for  use  under  ordinary  conditions,  but  is  discussed 
simply  in  order  to  point  out  that  under  certain  given  conditions 
it  could  be  adopted  and  justified. 

In  speaking,  for  example,  of  the  valuation  of  a  developed  gold 
mine,  the  final  statement  will  ordinarily  take  the  form  of  saying 
that  the  property  contains  a  certain  number  of  tons  of  ore,  with 
an  average  net  value  of  so  many  dollars  per  ton.  The  total  value 
of  the  property  will  then  be  placed  at  the  product  of  these  two 
figures,  with  some  discount  for  the  years  required  to  work  out  the 
mine.  The  same  form  of  statement  would  be  used  in  discussing 
a  copper  mine,  though  in  this  case  owing  to  the  variations  in  the 
price  of  copper,  the  statement  would  have  to  be  qualified  by  say- 
ing that  it  was  based  on  the  assumption  that  during  the  life  of 
the  mine  metallic  copper  averaged  so  many  cents  per  pound.  In 
neither  case  would  anyone  connected  with  the  mining  industry 
see  anything  remarkable  in  the  form  of  statement,  or  in  the 
general  method  which  had  been  employed.  But  if  we  should 
value  an  iron  mine  on  precisely  the  same  basis,  the  results  would 
be  very  remarkable,  and  everyone  would  criticise  the  methods 
adopted.  Yet  there  is  no  good  reason  for  making  any  difference 


110  IRON  ORES 

between  the  two  cases,  except  that  trade  customs  have  been 
different. 

In  mining  any  ore  except  iron,  we  are  accustomed  to  credit  the 
ore  with  the  total  net  profit  of  all  the  series  of  operations  from 
mine  to  finished  and  marketed  metal.  In  other  words,  the  net 
value  of  a  ton  of  gold  or  copper  ore  is  always  taken  as  meaning 
the  profits  per  ton  which  can  be  credited  to  the  mine  after  all  the 
expenses  and  losses  of  mining,  smelting,  transportation  and  re- 
fining have  been  met  and  allowed  for. 

In  dealing  with  iron  ore,  however,  the  practice  has  been  very 
different.  Here  it  has  been  the  custom  to  credit  the  bulk  of  the 
profit  of  the  series  of  operations,  not  to  the  mine,  but  to  the  blast 
furnaces  or  steel-mill.  The  results  have  been,  in  some  sense, 
unfortunate;  for  this  method  of  crediting  most  of  the  profits  to  a 
late  stage  in  the  process  has  encouraged  the  public  idea  that  the 
profits  of  iron  and  steel  manufacture  are  excessive.  Mining  has 
always  been  looked  upon  as  a  commercially  hazardous  occupa- 
tion, whose  risks  must  be  compensated  for  by  the  possibility  of 
larger  profits  than  can  fairly  be  asked  or  expected  from  ordinary 
business.  There  has  never  been  serious  criticism  of  copper 
mines  because  of  their  occasional  large  earnings,  and  there  is  no 
good  reason  why  iron  mining  should  be  placed  upon  any  other 
level  in  the  public  estimation. 

The  method  of  valuation  which  has  been  here  suggested  is 
clearly  justifiable,  but  as  it  has  not  been  adopted  in  the  past  there 
is  no  need  to  discuss  it  in  more  detail.  *The  methods  which 
remain  to  be  considered  are  both  justifiable  and  in  regular  use. 

Market  Valuations. — Another  method  of  valuation,  which 
theoretically  should  give  about  the  same  final  results  as  the  one 
which  will  be  next  discussed,  is  to  work  out  the  problem  from  the 
current  prices  of  similar  ore  lands  in  the  same  district.  A  modifi- 
cation of  this  method,  which  is  here  put  in  use  for  the  first  time, 
is  to  work  it  out  from  the  market  value  of  securities  issued  against 
ore  properties.  Neither  of  these  methods  can  be  applied  auto- 
matically or  unintelligently,  for  it  is  necessary  that  the  property 
whose  value  is  to  be  determined  shall  be  closely  comparable  in 
every  way  with  the  properties  of  known  value  used  for 
comparison. 

The  market  value  of  an  ore  property  will  depend  upon  a  num- 
ber of  factors.  The  one  which  comes  first  to  mind,  and  is  most 


THE  BASAL  FACTORS  IN  ORE  VALUATION      111 

commonly  discussed  in  this  connection — i.e.,  the  grade  of  the  ore 
itself — is  after  all  of  quite  subordinate  importance  except  in 
comparing  two  closely  similar  properties  in  the  same  district. 
The  most  important  matter  is  the  relation  between  supply  and 
demand  in  the  particular  district  where  the  property  is  located, 
and  this  fact  is  constantly  forgotten  in  current  discussions  of  the 
subject.  As  an  instance  in  point,  we  may  take  the  South,  where 
ore  lands  are  still  sold  at  a  very  low  price  per  ton.  This  condition 
is  not  due  primarily  to  the  low  grade  of  Southern  ores,  but  to 
the  fact  that  the  Southern  States  contain  some  3,000,000,000 
tons  or  more  of  iron  ore;  and  that  this  huge  reserve  is  being  used 
at  the  rate  of  only  some  5,000,000  or  6,000,000  tons  a  year.  In 
the  Lake  region,  a  total  reserve  of  slightly  smaller  size  is  being 
drawn  on  at  the  rate  of  almost  50,000,000  tons  a  year.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  Lake  supply,  in  relation  to  the  demand,  is  more 
than  ten  times  as  scarce  as  the  Southern  supply.  Even  if  Lake 
ores  were  of  poorer  grade  than  the  average  Southern  ore,  they 
would  still  be  worth  far  more  money  per  ton  because  of  this 
relation. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  do  find  that  this  relation  holds  when  we 
come  to  compare  the  market  values  of  Lake  and  Southern  ore 
properties.  In  the  South  it  is  still  possible  to  buy  ores  at  the 
rate  of  one  cent  per  ton  or  less;  and  it  is  rarely  necessary  to  go  over 
two  or  three  cents  a  ton  except  for  small,  easily  developed  and  ex- 
ceptionally well-located  holdings.  Compared  with  this,  we  find 
that  in  the  Lake  regions  the  Minnesota  and  Michigan  ore  lands 
are  actually  taxed  on  a  basis  which  implies  that  they  are  worth 
from  forty  to  eighty  cents  a  ton. 

A  curious  check  upon  the  substantial  accuracy  of  the  above 
figures  is  afforded  by  using  the  method  which  the  writer  recently 
developed  for  a  special  purpose.  In  this  method  security  prices 
are  used  after  making  allowances  for  the  value  of  the  other  prop- 
erties covered  by  the  securities,  for  determining  the  values  placed 
by  the  Stock  Exchange  on  raw  materials.  The  method  will  not 
be  widely  applicable,  for  it  requires  some  detailed  knowledge  of 
the  companies  whose  securities  are  compared,  but  when  it  can  be 
used  at  all  its  results  are  peculiarly  valuable.  It  will  not  be 
necessary  to  discuss  the  method  or  results  here  in  detail,  but  one 
set  of  comparisons  will  be  of  present  interest.  It  covers  the  re- 
sults secured  by  comparing  a  company  having  its  ores  in  the 


112  IRON  ORES 

4 

Lake  region,  with  another  company  based  on  Alabama  ores. 
The  valuations  per  ton  placed  on  the  ores  by  the  New  York 
Stock  Exchange,  at  two  important  periods,  were  as  shown  in  the 
tabulation  below: 

High  of  Panic  of  Avpratrp 

1906  IQ07 

Lake  ores 53. 10  cts.      20.25  cts.      36.67  cts. 

Alabama  ores 2.66  cts.        1.20  cts.        1.83  cts. 

Of  course  too  much  stress  should  not  be  laid  upon  this  method 
of  determining  values,  for  the  Stock  Exchange  is  subject  to  errors 
of  judgment.  But  it  is,  after  all,  the  broadest  market  we  have 
for  large  properties,  and  the  value  which  it  places  on  them  must 
be  taken  into  account. 

Capitalization  of  Royalties  or  Mining  Profits. — In  by  far  the 
majority  of  cases,  particularly  where  an  individual  ore-property 
of  moderate  size  is  under  consideration,  the  method  of  valuation 
adopted  will  involve  capitalizing  the  expected  royalties  or  the 
expected  mining  profits.  When  this  method  of  valuation  is 
adopted,  the  total  present  value  of  the  property  will  depend  upon 
three  factors : 

a.  Total  tonnage  of  merchantable  ore  on  property. 

b.  Royalty  or  net  profit  per  ton  of  ore. 

c.  Rate  at  which  the  ore  will  be  extracted. 

Of  the  three  factors  named,  the  total  tonnage  is  determined 
as  an  engineering  and  geologic  problem,  the  methods  for  such 
determination  being  discussed  in  detail  in  Chapter  X.  As  to 
the  other  two  factors,  they  may  either  be  definitely  known 
(as  when  a  specific  lease  is  under  consideration  or  in  force),  or  it 
may  be  necessary  to  estimate  them  from  past  experience.  In  the 
last  case  we  have  to  deal  respectively  with  such  factors  as  probable 
mining  costs,  grade  and  composition  of  ore,  concentrating  methods 
and  costs,  current  selling  prices  of  ores  in  competitive  markets, 
probable  demand  for  ore,  and  current  interest  rates. 

To  summarize  the  matter,  it  may  be  recalled  that  three  factors 
have  been  named  as  affecting  ore  reserve  valuations.  These 
three  factors  are  (1)  tonnage  on  property,  (2)  value  per  ton  of  ore, 
and  (3)  rate  of  extraction.  To  determine  the  present  value  of  an 
ore  property  three  operations  are  therefore  necessary.  These 
operations,  with  the  chapters  under  which  their  details  are  dis- 
cussed in  the  present  volume,  are  as  follows : 


THE  BASAL  FACTORS  IN  ORE  VALUATION     113 

A.  Determining  the  total  tonnage  on  the  property. 

Chapter  x        Prospecting  and  Tonnage  Determinations. 

B.  Determining  the  probable  profits  per  ton. 

Chapter  xi       Mining  Costs. 
Chapter  xii      Furnace  and  Mill  Requirements. 
Chapter  xiii    Composition  and  Concentration. 
Chapter  xiv     Prices,  Profits  and  Markets. 

C.  Determining  the  present  value. 

Chapter  xv      Time  as  a  Factor  in  Valuation. 

References  on  Reserve  Valuation. — Incidental  references  to  the 
subjects  which  have  been  discussed  in  this  chapter  will  be  found 
scattered  through  mining  literature,  and  some  of  these  minor 
contributions  to  the  problem  offer  valuable  material  for  study. 
The  books  listed  below,  however,  are  devoted  chiefly  or  entirely 
to  this  phase  of  mining. 

Finlay,  J.  R.  The  Cost  of  Mining.  8vo,  415  pages.  McGraw-Hill 
Book  Co.,  New  York,  1909. 

Hoover,  H.  C.  Principles  of  Mining.  8vo,  199  pages.  McGraw-Hill 
Book  Co.,  New  York,  1909. 

Lawn,  J.  G.  Mine  Accounts  and  Mining  Book-keeping.  8vo,  147  pages 
Charles  Griffin  &  Co.,  London,  1907  (5th  edition). 

Of  the  three  volumes  named  above,  Finlay's  book  is  of  greatest 
value  in  the  present  connection,  devoting  most  space  to  the  prin- 
ciples which  underlie  the  valuation  of  ore  reserves.  Hoover, 
though  also  discussing  this  phase  of  the  subject,  is  chiefly  inter- 
ested in  the  actual  methods  of  determining  the  reserves.  Lawn's 
book,  as  indicated  by  its  title,  is  chiefly  devoted  to  accounting 
method,  but  contains  some  valuable  discussion  of  the  principles 
and  methods  of  amortization. 


CHAPTER  X 
PROSPECTING  AND  TONNAGE  DETERMINATIONS 

In  the  previous  chapter  it  was  pointed  out  that  the  tonnage  of 
ore  contained  in  an  iron-ore  deposit  is  one  of  the  three  basal 
factors  on  which  depends  the  value  of  that  deposit.  The  other 
two  factors  will  be  taken  up  later,  but  the  present  chapter  will  be 
devoted  to  consideration  of  the  methods  of  determining  ore 
tonnage. 

The  ore  deposit  or  district  which  is  to  be  examined  may  be  an 
entirely  new  and  undeveloped  field,  or  it  may  be  a  portion  of  a 
worked  territory;  and  these  conditions  will  naturally  influence 
the  character  of  the  work  which  has  to  be  done  in  the  course  of  the 
examination.  Even  in  unworked  areas  it  is  usually  the  case 
that  there  has  been  more  or  less  desultory  prospecting  or  develop- 
ment work  carried  out  by  the  discoverers  of  the  ore;  but  in  order 
to  secure  sufficient  data  for  tonnage  estimates  it  will  almost 
inevitably  be  necessary  to  do  much  more  of  such  work.  The 
extent  of  this  later  prospecting  will  depend  very  largely  upon  the 
causes  which  have  led  to  the  examination. 

Reasons  for  Valuation. — The  bulk  of  the  work  done  in  the  way 
of  valuing  iron-ore  deposits  or  reserves  will  fall  under  one  or  the 
other  of  the  following  cases : 

1.  An  existing  furnace  company  wishes  to  secure  an  additional 
ore  supply.     In  this  case  there  will  be  existing  data  on  freight 
rates,  coke  costs,  etc.,  so  that  in  order  to  determine  the  value  of 
the  ore  to  the  company  only  its  composition,  tonnage  and  mining 
possibilities  need  be  considered. 

2.  Several  existing  companies  wish  to  have  their  properties 
appraised,  for  the  purpose  of  consolidation.     In  this  case  the 
values  may  be  entirely  arbitrary  without  injustice,  so  long  as 
they  are  directly  comparable. 

3.  An  ore  property  is  to  be  examined  for  the  purpose  of  organ- 
izing  a   separate    ore-mining   company.      Except   in   the  Lake 
Superior   district,   where   certain   standards   of  value   are   well 

114 


PROSPECTING  AND  TONNAGE  DETERMINATIONS  115 

understood,  this  is  the  most  difficult  case  of  all,  for  it  involves 
the  study  of  all  competitive  ores  as  well  as  of  possible  markets. 

4.  An  ore  deposit  is  to  be  examined  for  the  purpose  of  organ- 
izing a  new  furnace  company.  In  this  case  competitive  ores 
require  less  attention;  but  this  is  counter-balanced  by  the  heavier 
investment  which  will  be  based  on  the  examination. 

THE  STUDY  OF  ORIGIN  AND  RELATIONS 

Geologic  Examination. — It  seems  hardly  necessary  to  say  that 
until  the  engineer  charged  with  the  examination  of  an  iron-ore 
property  has  arrived  at  reasonably  satisfactory  conclusions 
regarding  the  origin  and  geological  relations  of  the  ore  deposit, 
he  will  be  entirely  unable  to  give  an  opinion  of  any  value  regard- 
ing the  probable  continuity  of  the  ore-bodies  either  laterally  or  in 
depth,  the  tonnage  available  at  working  depths,  or  the  value  of 
the  property.  Such  opinions  can  only  be  arrived  at  by  making 
assumptions  on  certain  points,  and  all  of  the  assumed  factors  are 
matters  to  be  determined  largely  by  geological  reasoning  and  not 
by  purely  engineering  methods.  This  implies  simply  that  in 
order  to  satisfactorily  handle  the  problems  which  will  present 
themselves  during  such  an  examination  the  engineer  must  possess 
a  fair  knowledge  of  applied  geology,  and  that  he  shall  be  capable 
of  making  use  of  this  knowledge  in  the  field. 

Before  commencing  the  actual  prospecting  work  it  will  there- 
fore be  advisable  to  devote  some  time  to  a  study  of  the  geology  of 
the  area,  mapping  roughly  the  different  formations,  determining 
if  possible  the  underground  structure  of  the  rocks,  and  studying 
the  geologic  relations  of  the  ores.  The  time  to  be  spent  on  such  a 
study  will  depend  on  the  area  to  be  covered,  the  total  time  avail- 
able, the  importance  of  the  property,  and  the  character  of  the 
ore  deposits.  In  dealing,  for  example,  with  well-known  sedimen- 
tary deposits  such  as  the  Clinton  hematites  of  the  southern  United 
States,  which  occupy  a  very  definite  geologic  position,  little  time 
need  be  spent  except  in  the  determination  of  the  existence  and 
location  of  folds  and  faults  in  the  strata.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  problem  concerns  a  magnetite  or  brown-ore  body  of  unknown 
origin  and  relations,  time  spent  on  a  study  of  all  important 
geologic  factors  will  never  be  wasted. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  is  rarely  necessary  for  the 


116  IRON  ORES 

engineer  to  commence  this  local  geological  study  in  entire  ignor- 
ance of  what  he  may  expect  to  find.  Something  is  usually  on 
record  concerning  the  district,  if  one  knows  where  to  look  for  it. 
In  states  and  countries  that  have  arrived  at  a  fairly  high  level  of 
civilization  the  engineer  will  usually  find  a  more  or  less  valuable 
series  of  reports  by  the  State  or  National  Geological  Survey,  and 
inquiry  will  commonly  develop  the  fact  that  there  is  considerably 
more  unpublished  material  on  file  at  their  offices.  In  regard  to 
less-known  districts  books  of  travel,  consular  reports  and  scien- 
tific journals  will  frequently  be  found  to  contain  information  of 
value. 

Probabilities  as  to  Origin. — Of  course  each  particular  ore 
deposit  or  group  of  deposits  will  require  individual  study  before 
anything  definite  can  be  said  concerning  its  origin.  But  a  good 
deal  of  time  can  be  saved  in  these  studies  if  it  is  realized  at  the 
outset  that  there  are  certain  probabilities  which  are  worth 
considering.  For  the  facts  on  which  these  probabilities  are 
based,  reference  must  be  made  to  the  details  given  in  the  preced- 
ing chapters  (Chapters  II  to  VIII)  dealing  with  the  origin  of  iron- 
ore  deposits.  In  the  present  place  it  is  only  necessary  to  state 
briefly  the  conclusions  which  appear  to  be  justified  in  the  light 
of  our  present  knowledge.  It  will  be  seen  that  these  conclusions 
are  of  very  direct  and  practical  service  during  the  preliminary 
examination  and  the  prospecting  of  a  new  ore  deposit. 

Based  on  the  kind  of  iron  ore  which  the  deposit  shows  at  the 
surface,  the  probabilities  as  to  the  origin  of  the  deposit  may  be 
stated  as  follows,  the  likeliest  mode  of  origin  being  in  each  case 
noted  first: 

Carbonate  ore: 

1.  Sedimentary  bed. 

2.  Replacement  of  limestone. 

Brown  ore: 

1.  Residual  ore. 

2.  Gossan  or  surface  alteration  of  contact  deposit. 

3.  Normal  replacement  of  limestone  or,  less  commonly,  sandstone. 

4.  Sedimentary  bed. 

Hematite: 

1.  Sedimentary  bed;  if  oolitic  or  granular  texture. 

2.  Contact  deposit. 

3.  Replacement;  usually  of  limestone. 

4.  Secondary  concentration. 


PROSPECTING  AND  TONNAGE  DETERMINATIONS  117 

Magnetite: 

1.  Contact  replacement. 

2.  Metamorphosed  sediment  or  replacement. 

3.  Magmatic  segregation;  if  in  basic  igneous  rocks. 

Of  course  the  preceding  summary  does  not  cover  all  the  possible 
ways  in  which  any  of  these  ores  may  originate.  But  it  does 
include  the  types  in  which  they  are  most  likely  to  be  found; 
and  it  lists  them,  on  the  whole,  in  about  the  order  of  their 
probability. 

Application  of  Geologic  Studies. — Assuming  that  it  has  been 
possible  for  the  engineer  to  come  to  some  tentative  conclusion  as 
to  the  probable  manner  in  which  the  ore  deposit  originated,  it 
remains  to  put  this  conclusion  to  service  in  laying  out  the  pros- 
pecting work.  Much  depends  of  course  upon  local  conditions, 
so  that  no  hard-and-fast  rules  can  be  laid  down  for  translating  the 
results  of  the  geologic  study  into  practice.  But  it  is  possible  to 
point  out  certain  facts  of  very  general  applicability. 

The  principal  relations  existing  between  mode  or  origin  and 
character  of  prospecting  work  will  affect  the  extent  of  work  re- 
quired, the  direction  in  which  work  is  most  desirable,  and  the 
reliance  to  be  placed  on  individual  analyses  or  excavations. 
Each  kind  of  deposit  differs  in  these  regards,  so  that  the  matter 
can  best  be  placed  in  useful  form  if  arranged  according  to  general 
type  of  deposit. 

Sedimentary  Deposits. — Occurring  as  distinct  beds,  usually 
extensive  in  area.  Variations  in  composition  greater  across  the 
bedding  than  along  it.  Occurrence  of  ore  has  no  relation  to 
present  land  surface;  and  only  reason  for  deep  drilling  is  to  check 
up  estimates  as  to  depth,  etc.  Prospecting  may  be  relatively 
slight  and  still  give  good  basis  for  tonnage  estimates.  More 
care  required  in  getting  good  average  samples  to  show  actual  ship- 
ping grade.  If  samples  run  low  in  phosphorus,  further  examina- 
tion is  desirable,  as  this  is  unusual  in  sedimentary  deposits.  If 
extensive  operations  are  planned,  faults  must  be  looked  for 
carefully. 

Normal  Replacements. — Determine  what  kind  of  rock  has  been 
replaced,  and  get  some  idea  of  its  areal  distribution  and  geologic 
structure.  In  steep-dipping  beds  deposit  will  usually  replace  a 
special  bed  and  form  a  tabular  mass;  in  massive  or  flat-lying 
rocks  it  will  be  irregular.  In  either  case  widest  ore-body  and 


118  IRON  ORES 

best  ore  is  likely  to  occur  at  or  near  the  present  ground  surface; 
and  ore  deposit  will  terminate  at  some  moderate  depth.  Latter 
point  may  be  determined  by  drilling  or  cross-cutting  if  topog- 
raphy is  favorable.  Presence  of  iron  carbonate  usually  indicates 
that  bottom  or  side  of  deposit  is  being  approached. 

Secondary  Concentrations. — Locally  very  important,  but  not  of 
widespread  occurrence.  In  a  new  district  they  will  be  treated 
like  normal  replacements.  Chief  differences  are  that  ore  is  not 
necessarily  best  and  thickest  at  present  surface;  and  that  separate 
deposits  may  be  struck  in  depth. 

Contact  Deposits. — No  relation  to  present  surface;  ore  body 
usually  borders  contact  of  igneous  rock;  occasionally  diverges 
from  this  contact  to  follow  some  particular  bed  or  zone  in  the 
other  rocks.  Other  dimensions  very  irregular  and  impossible  to 
estimate  in  advance;  close  prospecting  therefore  required  in  every 
direction.  Particular  attention  must  be  paid  to  sulphur  in 
samples;  danger  that  it  will  increase  with  depth. 

Residual  Deposits. — Ore  deposition  related  to  existing  or  recent 
topography;  deposit  will  therefore  thin  and  possibly  lower  in 
grade  with  depth  when  standing  in  vertical  or  inclined  position. 
When  present  ore-body  occurs  as  a  more  or  less  horizontal  mantle, 
its  area  may  not  decrease  in  depth,  but  the  total  depth  to  which 
it  extends  is  apt  to  be  small — say  50  feet  or  less.  The  grade  of  a 
mantling  ore-body  may  change  in  depth,  and  sometimes  the  best 
ore  is  found  near  the  base  of  the  deposit.  In  any  case  deposit  will 
terminate  in  depth  by  running  into  solid  rock  or  pyrite.  This 
class  includes  some  easily  prospected  deposits,  but  in  general  the 
residual  ores  will  cost  more  for  prospecting,  per  ton  of  ore  devel- 
oped, than  any  other  type. 

PROSPECTING  METHODS  AND  COSTS 

Available  Methods  of  Exploration. — The  five  methods  grouped 
below  cover  all  the  methods  of  exploration  which  are  generally 
useful.  Of  the  five,  three  are  drilling  methods;  while  two  depend 
upon  actual  excavation. 

1.  Core  drilling,  in  which  a  rotating  hollow  bit  cuts  a  solid  core;  the 
sample  being  brought  up  in  its  original  condition. 

2.  Churn  drilling,  in  which  tools  suspended  by  rods  and  cable  make  th:ir 
progress  by  impact;  the  sample  coming  up  as  slime  or  mud. 


PROSPECTING  AND  TONNAGE  DETERMINATIONS  119 

3.  Auger  drilling,  in  which  an  auger,  screwed  to  the  end  of  a  series  of 
lengths  of  bar  or  pipe,  is  rotated  by  hand;  the  sample  being  caught  in  the 
thread  of  the  auger. 

4.  Pits  and  shafts,  for  vertical  exploration. 

5.  Trenches  and  drifts,  for  horizontal  exploration. 

Choice  of  Methods. — The  adoption  of  one  or  the  other  of  these 
methods  may  be  dictated  by  the  necessities  of  the  individual  case. 
For  example,  it  would  be  ridiculous  to  go  to  the  expense  of  diamond 
drilling  in  examining  a  small  or  otherwise  unimportant  ore-body; 
while  absence  of  good  water  supply  would  be  an  argument  against 
either  diamond  or  churn  drilling.  Aside  from  these  local  or  indi- 
vidual reasons,  however,  there  are  certain  broad  principles  which 
will  usually  lead  to  a  choice  among  the  various  methods.  The 
facts  in  the  case  are  stated  on  pages  following,  and  their  effect 
on  choice  of  methods  may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

For  cross-cutting  inclined  beds: 

Trenches  or  drifts;  usually  both. 

For  proving  either  bedded  or  irregular  ore-bodies  in  depth: 
In  hard  rock: 

Core  drill  usually;  occasionally  churn  drill. 
In  soft  rock,  clay,  etc.: 

Pits  for  shallow  work — say  up  to  20  feet — or  for  deeper  work  if 

timbered. 
Auger  drilling  for  shallow  to  medium  depths  (0-80  feet)  in  clays, 

soil,  etc. 

Churn  drilling  for  depths  between  50  and  1000  feet. 
For  determining  lateral  extent  of  irregular  shallow  deposits: 
Pits  or  trenches  almost  always  most  economical. 
Auger  or  other  drilling  when  overburden  exceeds  25  feet  or  so. 

Core  Drilling. — In  speaking  of  core  drilling,  it  may  be  assumed 
that  diamond  drilling  is  meant,  for  other  methods  of  core  drilling 
are  in  general  less  efficient  in  dealing  with  hard  materials.  The 
chief  advantages  of  core  drills  are,  of  course,  that  they  furnish  a 
good  sample  of  the  ore;  and  that  they  determine  its  thickness  and 
depth  very  precisely.  As  against  this,  they  are  expensive  as 
compared  with  other  methods;  they  fail  in  creviced  or  loose  rock; 
and  they  lose  their  advantage  sharply  as  the  depth  of  soil  and 
other  overburden  increases.  For  two  particular  purposes  they 
are  particularly  adapted;  to  determine  the  shape  and  extent  of 
pockety  or  irregular  ore-bodies  enclosed  in  hard  rock,  and  to 
determine  the  thickness,  grade  and  depth  of  bedded  or  lenticular 
ore-bodies  in  depth.  Finally,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  use  of 


120  IRON  ORES 

core  drills  is  of  more  service  in  the  close  final  work  than  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  prospecting  an  unknown  property;  and  that  the 
records  of  the  work  should  be  kept  with  a  care  proportionate  to 
their  precision  and  their  cost. 

Total  costs  may  vary  from  SI. 50  per  foot  to  $3.00  or  more,  for 
very  deep  holes. 

Churn  Drilling. — The  use  of  the  regular  well-drilling  rig  has 
spread  from  oil  and  gas  exploration  to  work  in  iron  fields,  to  which 
it  is  not  by  any  means  so  well  adapted.  It  is  possible  to  reach 
great  depths  with  the  churn  drill,  but  the  samples  are  always  poor 
and  the  analytical  results  usually  doubtful.  When  the  ore  occurs 
as  a  definite  bed,  enclosed  in  rocks  of  widely  different  character, 
the  results  by  this  method  are  good  enough,  and  in  this  case  its 
lower  cost  gives  it  the  preference  over  core-drill  work.  Hard 
rock  or  boulders  increase  costs  heavily.  On  the  average,  costs 
may  vary  from  somewhat  less  than  $1.00  to  $1.50  per  foot  or 
over.  For  very  shallow  depths,  say  100  feet  or  less,  the  time 
lost  in  moving  the  rig  is  a  heavy  item,  though  for  these  depths 
the  cost  of  the  actual  drilling  is  very  low. 

Auger  Drilling. — The  earth-auger,  originally  used  in  exploring 
clay  deposits,  has  proven  to  have  a  certain  field  of  utility  in  iron- 
ore  exploration.  Catlett  and  others  have  used  it  in  prospect- 
ing brown-ore  deposits,  and  have  found  that  within  a  limited  field 
it  has  the  advantages  of  cheapness  and  handiness.  The  entire  rig 
can  be  made  up  at  any  blacksmith  shop  in  a  few  hours  if  necessary, 
and  as  a  matter  of  fact  all  the  parts  required  are  ordinarily  carried 
in  the  stores  of  every  mining  camp. 

The  limitations  of  this  method  are  marked.  It  can  not  pene- 
trate hard  material,  being  unavailable  against  hard  rock  or  even 
boulders.  On  the  other  hand,  in  soil  or  clay  it  makes  very  rapid 
progress.  The  depth  is  limited  by  the  difficulty  of  pulling  the 
string  of  rods,  so  that  30  feet  is  the  usual  maximum  unless  tackle 
be  rigged.  These  conditions  really  limit  the  auger  to  use  in 
shallow  deposits  of  brown  ore. 

As  the  auger  rig  will  usually  have  to  be  improvised  by  the  engi- 
neer on  the  ground,  the  following  data  quoted  from  a  paper  by 
Catlett  in  the  Transactions  of  the  American  Institute  of  Mining 
Engineers  may  prove  of  service : 

The  outfit  required  for  projecting  work  consists  of: 

1.  "An  auger-bit  of  steel  or  Swede  iron,  with  a  steel  point,  twisted 


PROSPECTING  AND  TONNAGE  DETERMINATIONS  121 

into  a  spiral,  with  an  ultimate  diameter  of  2  inches,  and  an  ultimate 
thickness  of  blade  of  not  less  than  |  inch.  The  point  is  found  more  effect- 
ive when  split.  The  length  of  the  auger  proper  was  gradually  in- 
creased until  about  13  inches  was  reached  as  the  apparent  maximum 
which  could  be  used  effectively.  The  13-inch  auger  contains  four  turns. 
This  was  welded  to  the  end  of  18  inches  of  1-inch  wr ought-iron  pipe, 
on  which  screws  were  cut  for  connection. 

2.  "One  foot  of  If-inch  octagonal  steel,  with  a  2-inch  cutting  face, 
which  is  likewise  welded  on  to  18  inches  of  pipe,  cut  for  connections. 

3.  "Ten  feet  of  lj-inch  iron  rod,  threaded  at  either  end  for  connection 
with  1-inch  pipe.     When  connected  with  one  of  the  drill-bits  this  be- 
comes a  jumper  for  starting  holes  through  hard  material.     It  is  also 
used  when  desired  to  give  additional  weight  to  the  drill  in  going  through 
rock  below  the  surface. 

4.  "Sections  of  1-inch  pipe  and  connections. 

5.  "An  iron  handle,  with  a  total  length  of  2  feet,  arranged  with  a 
central  eye  for  sliding  up  and  down  the  pipe  and  with  a  set-screw  for 
fastening  it  at  any  point. 

6.  "A  sand-pump,  consisting  of  1  or  2  feet  of  1-inch  pipe,  with  a 
simple  leather  valve  and  a  cord  for  raising  and  lowering  it. 

7.  "Two  pairs  of  pipe-tongs  or  two  monkey-wrenches,  with  attach- 
ments for  turning  them  into  pipe-tongs. 

8.  "Sundries:  25  feet  of  tape,  oil-can,  flat  file,  cheap  spring-balance, 
water -bucket,  etc. 

"The  auger  is  used  by  two  men,  who,  standing  on  opposite  sides, 
turn  it  by  means  of  the  handle.  The  handle  is  also  useful  in  giving  a 
good  purchase  for  starting  the  auger  from  the  bottom  of  the  hole,  in 
opposition  to  the  air-pressure,  which  is  considerable.  Enough  water  is 
continually  used  to  just  soften  the  material.  Usually  the  auger  brings 
up  a  small  portion,  which  is  dry  and  unaffected.  Every  few  minutes, 
as  the  auger  becomes  full,  it  is  lifted  out,  scraped  off  and  replaced. 
The  handle  is  moved  up  and  tightened  by  means  of  the  set-screw  as 
the  auger  goes  down.  At  every  slight  change  of  the  material  the  depth 
and  the  character  of  the  material  are  recorded. 

"When  hard  material  is  encountered  the  auger-bit  is  screwed  off  and 
the  drill-bit  screwed  on,  thus  forming  a  churn-drill,  which  may  be  used 
for  passing  through  the  hard  material,  the  auger  being  replaced  when 
softer  material  is  reached.  The  churn-drill  is  used  by  lifting  it  and  let- 
ting it  fall,  turning  it  slightly  each  time.  Its  weight  makes  it  cut  quite 
rapidly.  When  the  drill  is  used  the  muck  is  either  worked  stiff  enough 
to  admit  of  its  being  withdrawn  with  the  auger,  or  it  is  extracted  by 
means  of  the  sand-pump  or  a  hickory  swab.  In  either  case  the  material 
is  washed  and  a  sample  is  obtained  of  the  stratum  through  which  the 
drill  is  cutting. 


122  IRON  ORES 

"Of  course,  the  best  work  with  such  tools  is  done  on  soft  material, 
but  it  is  entirely  practicable  to  go  through  hard  material  (a  few  feet  of 
quartzite  or  flint,  and  many  feet  of  ore  being  often  encountered  in  a 
single  hole),  and  the  ability  of  this  simple  contrivance  to  go  through 
interbedded  layers  of  hard  and  soft  substances  makes  it  very  efficient. 

"The  cost  per  foot  increases  considerably  with  depths  exceeding  50 
feet,  but  at  the  greatest  depth  I  attained  (some  80  feet)  I  did  not  reach 
either  its  capacity  or  the  limit  of  its  economical  use  as  compared  with 
other  methods. 

"Up  to  25  feet,  two  men  can  operate  it;  from  25  feet  to  35  feet,  three 
men  are  necessary;  from  that  to  50  feet,  a  rough  frame,  15  feet  to  20  feet 
high  (costing  something  over  $1.00),  for  the  third  man  to  stand  on,  is 
required.  The  frame  can  be  moved  from  point  to  point.  Above  50 
feet  it  is  generally  necessary  to  take  off  one  or  two  of  the  top-joints 
each  time  the  auger  or  drill  is  lifted." 

Pits  and  Shafts. — For  an  ore  deposit  which  commences  at  or 
near  the  ground  surface,  test  pits  will  probably  be  the  first  method 
thought  of.  Under  such  conditions  they  give  the  maximum  of 
information,  and  are  less  expensive  per  foot  of  depth  than  either 
churn  or  core  drills.  Their  possible  depth  is  limited,  however, 
for  in  ordinary  materials  it  is  rarely  safe  to  put  them  down  more 
than  30  feet  without  some  sort  of  light  timbering.  This,  and 
the  hoisting  necessities,  make  deep  test  pits  rather  more  expensive 
than  might  be  expected.  Up  to  50  feet  they  may  justify  this 
expense.  For  greater  depths,  unless  the  prospect  shaft  finally 
develops  into  a  regular  shaft,  it  will  probably  be  found  cheaper  to 
take  up  one  of  the  drilling  methods.  Test  pits  may  range  in 
cost  from  thirty  to  fifty  cents  per  foot  for  untimbered  holes  rang- 
ing from  10  to  30  feet  deep. 

Trenches  and  Drifts. — For  cross-cutting  an  inclined  ore-body, 
trenches  on  the  surface  and  drifts  below  the  outcrop  give  better 
results  than  test  pits  or  drilling.  When  the  ore-body  is  struck, 
headings  may  be  turned  off  along  it  to  develop  its  length  and 
continuity.  The  cost  of  such  work  will  depend  on  the  hardness 
of  the  material  passed  through,  and  on  the  amounts  of  timbering 
required.  For  short  drifts,  run  for  information  only,  timbering 
can  be  limited  to  actual  immediate  necessities;  but  if  the  drifts 
are  expected  to  stay  open  for  a  year  or  more,  they  must  be  put  in 
better  shape.  In  this  connection  it  is  well  to  recollect  that  safety 
must  be  given  consideration  in  prospecting  work  as  well  as  in 
actual  mining.  The  scattered  nature  of  the  workings,  the  dis- 


PROSPECTING  AND  TONNAGE  DETERMINATIONS  123 

tance  from  help  and  the  relative  lack  of  supervision  all  combine  to 
make  greater  care  necessary  during  the  prospecting  than  at  later 
stages  of  the  mining  work. 

ORE  DENSITY;  SPACE  AND  TONNAGE  CONVERSIONS 

Throughout  all  of  the  preceding  portion  of  this  chapter,  we 
have  been  concerned  chiefly  with  the  manner  in  which  the  size  of 
the  ore  deposit  is  to  be  determined.  Whatever  the  methods  of 
prospecting  adopted,  the  final  results  of  it  will  be  expressed  in 
terms  of  space — we  will  have  determined  that  there  are  a  certain 
number  of  cubic  feet  of  ore  available  in  the  given  deposit.  But, 
since  ore  is  actually  sold  by  the  ton  and  not  by  the  cubic  foot, 
it  is  obvious  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  convert  these  space 
measurements  into  tonnage  figures  before  we  have  really  com- 
pleted the  work  of  quantity  determination. 

Theoretical  or  Maximum  Density. — It  will  be  convenient  to 
determine  first  the  maximum  density  which  a  theoretically  pure 
ore  of  any  type  could  possibly  attain,  since  this  will  set  a  limit  in 
one  direction  for  the  variations  observed  in  actual  practice. 

If  we  were  dealing  with  absolutely  pure  ores,  at  their  maximum 
density,  the  four  important  iron  minerals  would  give  the  results 
shown  in  the  following  table.  The  specific  gravities  for  hematite 
and  siderite  are  quoted  from  F.  W.  Clarke;  the  brown-ore  density 
has  been  calculated  from  the  value  for  hematite,  on  the  theory 
that  the  common  type  of  brown  ore  may  carry  10  percent  of 
combined  water.  Using  these  specific  gravity  data  as  bases,  the 
weight  per  cubic  foot  and  the  number  of  cubic  feet  required  to 
make  up  a  long  ton  have  also  been  calculated  for  the  table. 

DENSITY  OF  PURE  IRON  MINERALS 

Q  Spec.  Weight  per  Cubic  feet 

gravity  cubic  foot  per  long  ton 

Magnetite 5.2  324.5  Ibs.  6.9  cu.  ft. 

Hematite 5.2  324. 5  Ibs.  6.9cu.  ft. 

Brown  ore 4.8  299.5  Ibs.  7.5  cu.  ft. 

Siderite 3.9  243. 4  Ibs.  9.2  cu.  ft. 

Factors  Decreasing  Density. — The  data  given  in  the  preceding 
table  relate  to  ores  which  are  (a)  theoretically  pure  iron  minerals, 
and  (b)  free  from  pore  space.  But  ores,  as  actually  found  and 
mined,  are  never  absolutely  pure,  and  never  quite  free  from  pores 
or  cavities  of  varying  size.  Both  of  these  factors  operate  to 


124  IRON  ORES 

reduce  the  actual  density  of  ores  below  the  theoretical  maxima 
noted  in  the  above  table. 

In  most  cases,  the  effect  of  the  rock  impurities  is  by  far  the 
more  important  of  the  two  causes  of  decreased  density;  but  when 
dealing  with  the  brown  ores  or  with  some  of  the  softer  hematites 
the  effect  of  porosity  is  very  marked. 

Some  idea  of  the  effect  of  impurities  in  reducing  ore  density  can 
be  gained  from  the  following  summary,  which  gives  the  specific 
gravity  of  the  rocks  and  other  materials  likely  to  be  associated 
with  the  ores. 

DENSITY  OF  GANGUE  MATERIALS 
Rock  or  mineral  Specific  gravity 

Quartz 2.5  to  2. 8 

Apatite 3 . 18  to  3 . 25 

Calcite 2 . 5  to  2 . 8 

Clays 1.9  average 

Shales 2.4  average 

Slates 2 . 7  to  2 . 9 

Limestones 2 . 3  to  2 . 9 

Sandstones 2 . 0  to  2 . 7 

Granites,  gneisses 2 . 66  average 

Traps 2.7  to  3.1 

It  will  be  seen  that,  excepting  titaniferous  minerals  and  pyrite, 
all  of  the  common  impurities  or  associaties  of  iron  ores  are  far 
lower  in  specific  gravity  than  any  of  the  iron  minerals  themselves. 

Density  of  Actual  Ores. — The  following  data  on  actual  ore 
densities  in  various  ore  districts,  covering  different  types  and 
kinds  of  ore,  will  be  of  service  in  checking  up  tonnage  estimates  in 
materials  of  similar  type. 

Taking  up  first  the  Lake  Superior  ores,  the  figures  which  follow 
are  summarized  from  data  presented  by  Van  Hise  and  Leith  on 
various  pages  of  Monograph  LII,  United  States  Geological 
Survey. 

CUBIC  FEET  PER  TON 
Range 

Vermillion Usual  estimates  9  to  10  cubic  feet  per  ton.  Actual  cal- 
culations show  8.75  feet  for  Soudan  ore  and  9.5  feet  for 
Ely  ore. 

Michipicoten. .  .    Range  very  wide;  average  13.5  feet  per  ton. 

Mesabi Range  very  wide;  from  9  cubic  feet  per  ton  for  densest  ores, 

to  17  or  18  feet  for  hydrated  ores;  average  for  range 
approximately  12  cubic  feet  per  ton. 


PROSPECTING  AND  TONNAGE  DETERMINATIONS  125 

CUBIC  FEET  PER  TON 
Range 

Cuyuna Hard  ores  average  10  cubic  feet  per  ton;  soft  ores  average 

11.5  cubic  feet;  average  for  a  large  deposit  consisting 
of  both  types  might  be  11  cubic  feet  per  ton. 

Gogebic Range  from  7.5  cubic  feet  for  best  hard  ore,  to  14  cubic  feet 

in  soft  yellow  ores.  Average  for  range  shipments 
about  10.75  cubic  feet. 

Marquette Range  from  7  cubic  feet  for  best  hard  hematite  and  mag- 
netite, down  to  14.5  feet  for  hydrated  ores. 

Florence Range  from  8  to  15  cubic  feet  per  ton,  with  average  of  about 

11  cubic  feet. 

Menominee.  .  .  .  Range  very  wide;  the  bulk  of  the  ores,  however,  will  fall 
between  9  and  14  cubic  feet  per  ton. 

The  red  hematites  of  the  Wabana  field  of  Newfoundland  range 
from  48  to  56  percent  metallic  iron,  in  the  different  beds,  and 
their  porosity  varies  somewhat.  The  two  factors  give  a  moderate 
range  in  density  for  the  ores.  Samples  collected  by  E.  E.  Ellis, 
and  determined  at  the  Ensley  laboratory,  gave  the  following 
results  for  typical  Wabana  ores  from  the  three  workable  beds: 

Ore  bed  Specific  gravity 

Upper  seam 3 . 99 

Scotia  seam 3 . 95 

Dominion  seam. .  .   4. 12 


Average 4 . 02 

This  corresponds  very  closely  to  9  cubic  feet  per  ton.  It  may 
be  of  interest  to  note  that  the  highest  grade  ore  gave  the  lowest 
specific  gravity,  owing  to  its  greater  porosity. 

The  red  Clinton  hematites  of  the  southern  and  eastern  United 
States  vary  somewhat  in  density  according  to  their  iron  grade, 
but  far  more  widely  according  to  whether  they  are  soft  (leached) 
or  hard  (unleached)  ores.  There  is  little  interest  left  concerning 
soft  ores,  for  they  have  been  worked  out  almost  everywhere. 
The  hard  or  unleached  ores  are  fairly  dense  materials,  and  show 
less  variation  in  gravity  than  might  be  expected.  Seven  samples 
from  the  Birmingham  district,  ranging  from  35.19  to  38.05  per- 
cent metallic  iron,  gave  specific  gravities  ranging  from  3.42  to 
3.56.  For  all  practical  purposes  it  is  safe  to  assume,  as  was  done 
in  the  calculation  of  the  Birmingham  district  ore  reserves,  that 
the  hard  red  ores  will  run  almost  exactly  10  cubic  feet  to  the  ton. 
The  soft  ores  show  gravities  from  3.5  to  4.2  in  powdered  form, 
but  their  porosity  lessens  their  real  density  in  the  ground,  so  that 


126  IRON  ORES 

it  is  not  safe  to  count  on  their  yielding  much  more  than  the  hard 
ores  per  cubic  foot. 

Massive  bedded  carbonates  may  run  as  high  as  10  to  12  cubic 
feet  to  the  ton  as  they  occur  in  the  ground.  The  nodular  car- 
bonates, with  considerable  waste  material,  are  of  course  much  less 
dense  in  a  natural  condition;  and  may  range  as  low  as  15  feet  per 
ton. 

Brown  ores  show  the  greatest  variation  in  density.  Pockets 
of  high-grade  ore  may  yield  at  the  rate  of  9  cubic  feet  per  ton, 
but  this  is  an  exceptional  condition.  The  brown  ores  of  the 
Oriskany  or  Clifton  Forge  region  of  Virginia,  which  are  perhaps 
the  most  solid  of  their  type,  yield  at  the  rate  of  about  22  cubic 
feet  per  ton  of  washed  ore.  In  southwestern  Virginia  and  in 
north  Georgia,  where  the  washing  ratio  is  higher,  it  may  be  neces- 
sary to  allow  25  to  50  cubic  feet  to  the  ton  of  ore. 

Magnetites  of  the  Adirondack  and  other  regions  vary  chiefly 
according  to  iron  content,  since  none  of  them  show  much  porosity. 
High-grade  ores  such  as  some  portions  of  the  Mineville  deposits 
yielded,  show  7  or  8  cubic  feet  to  the  ton.  From  this  we  can 
grade  down,  according  to  iron  percentage,  to  20  or  25  cubic  feet 
per  ton  of  concentrates,  where  a  25  to  30  percent  ore  is  under 
examination. 


CHAPTER  XI 
MINING  CONDITIONS  AND  COSTS 

However  the  ore  deposit  may  have  originated,  and  whatever 
the  tonnage  of  ore  it  may  contain,  its  proper  development  and 
utilization  will  involve  a  number  of  different  operations  before 
the  ore  is  converted  into  merchantable  metal.  Summarized 
briefly,  these  will  include  mining  the  ore,  in  many  cases  concen- 
trating part  or  all  of  the  ore  mined,  transporting  the  ore  to  a 
furnace,  smelting  it  into  pig  iron,  and  probably  carrying  the  proc- 
ess further  to  steel  conversion  and  the  manufacture  of  finished 
products. 

Any  one  of  these  operations  would,  if  treated  in  technical 
detail,  require  a  volume  for  its  adequate  presentation.  But  in 
the  present  place  there  is  no  necessity  for  discussing  technical 
details  or  methods,  except  in  so  far  as  they  influence  the  industrial 
value  or  competitive  importance  of  ore  deposits. 

Keeping  in  mind  this  limitation  in  the  scope  of  treatment,  the 
present  chapter  will  include  some  discussion  of  mining  costs  in 
various  districts,  for  which  ample  details  have  fortunately  become 
available  recently.  In  later  chapters  the  influence  of  furnace 
and  mill  requirements  on  ore  values  will  be  taken  up,  followed  by 
discussion  of  natural  ore  grades  and  concentration  possibilities. 

General  Mining  Methods. — Probably  nine  mines  out  of  ten 
are,  at  the  very  commencement  of  operations,  worked  as  open 
cuts  for  a  time.  Ordinarily  this  lasts  until  the  stripping  becomes 
a  serious  problem,  and  then  the  question  arises  as  to  permanent 
methods.  Under  certain  conditions  there  is,  of  course,  little 
room  for  choice  in  this  matter.  A  thin  vertical  or  steeply  in- 
clined ore-body,  extending  downward  to  great  depths,  will  neces- 
sarily be  worked  by  means  of  a  shaft  or  slope.  An  approximately 
horizontal  ore-body,  extending  to  the  surface  at  many  points,  will 
almost  necessarily  be  worked  as  an  open  cut.  These  two  cases, 
whose  method  of  treatment  is  obvious  enough  on  merely  stating 
the  facts,  include  many  of  the  iron-ore  deposits  commonly  en- 
countered. The  eastern  magnetites,  for  example,  ordinarily 

127 


128  IRON  ORES 

occur  as  more  or  less  steeply  inclined  lenses;  the  Clinton  red  ores 
occur  normally  as  inclined  beds;  and  in  each  of  these  cases  shafts 
or  slopes  are  the  only  feasible  methods  of  working.  Most  of 
our  brown  ores,  on  the  other  hand,  occur  as  deposits  reaching 
the  ground  surface  at  many  points,  and  not  extending  downward 
to  any  great  depth.  In  this  case  an  open  cut  is  the  only  thing 
to  be  considered. 

But  there  are  cases,  and  important  cases,  where  there  is  dis- 
tinct room  for  choice  between  the  two  methods  of  operation. 
The  bulk  of  the  Mesaba  deposits,  for  example,  would  fall  in  this 
doubtful  group;  many  of  the  Oriskany  and  other  brown  ores 
are  equally  open  to  discussion;  and  occasionally  hematites  and 
magnetites  of  other  regions  occur  in  deposits  whose  proper  method 
of  working  may  not  be  absolutely  fixed  by  natural  conditions. 

The  following  comparison  of  costs  as  between  the  open-pit  and 
the  underground  mines  on  the  Mesabi  range  is  quoted  in  slightly 
rearranged  form,  from  the  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Cor- 
porations on  the  Steel  Industry,  pt.  3,  p.  43.  It  is  based  on  a 
very  large  proportion  of  the  total  operations  on  that  range  during 
the  years  1902  to  1906  inclusive. 

Open-pit  Milling  and  under- 

mines ground  mines 

Tonnage  covered 28,984,383          35,500,173 

Costs  per  ton 

Labor $0.10  $0.40 

Supplies 0.04  0.16 

Repairs ' 0.01  0.01 

General  expense 0. 01  0. 02 

Stripping 0.06  0.04 


Actual  mining  costs 0.22  0.63 

Depreciation 0.06  0.09 

.Royalties 0.24  0.27 

Total  cost  per  ton $0.52  $0.99 

A  word  of  warning  may  not  come  amiss  when  such  figures  as 
these  are  under  consideration.  In  considering  the  relative  advan- 
tages of  surface  and  underground  mining,  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  Mesabi  offered  exceptional  conditions  in  favor  of 
steam-shovel  work.  The  individual  deposits  are  large,  continu- 
ous, and  when  once  stripped  the  openings  are  practically  free  from 
waste  matter.  This  brings  down  costs  per  ton  of  ore  to  a  mini- 


MINING  CONDITIONS  AND  COSTS  129 

mum  which  is  not  likely  to  be  approached  in  ordinary  ore  fields. 
In  most  parts  of  the  world  there  will  be  sufficient  irregularity  in 
the  ore  deposit  to  increase  actual  operating  costs  very  heavily, 
and  there  will  be  a  large  amount  of  dead  work  and  exploratory 
work  to  be  done  which  will  add  to  total  costs. 

Cost  of  Mining  Lake  Ores. — WJien  Finlay,  in  1909,  prepared 
his  valuable  monograph  on  "The  Cost  of  Mining,"  he  notes  that 
he  could  find  no  general  data  on  the  cost  of  mining  iron  ores  in  the 
Lake  Superior  district.  Data  concerning  the  costs  at  individual 
mines  were  available,  it  is  true,  but  none  of  these  covered  sufficient 
tonnage  and  sufficient  variety  in  operating  conditions  to  make 
them  serviceable  as  bases  for  drawing  conclusions  regarding  the 
average  cost  of  the  entire  Lake  Superior  output,  or  of  any  consid- 
erable proportion  of  it. 

In  this  respect,  conditions  have  changed  radically  since  1909, 
owing  to  the  extensive  and  unsolicited  publicity  which  different 
branches  of  the  iron  business  have  received  from  various  depart- 
ments of  both  the  Federal  and  the  State  governments.  To  one 
who  has  not  kept  close  track  of  this  line  of  activity,  it  is  difficult  to 
realize  how  far  it  has  extended.  The  matter  may  fairly  be  sum- 
marized by  saying  that  during  the  past  three  years  investigations 
of  more  or  less  moment  to  the  iron  industry  have  been  carried  out 
by  the  House  of  Representatives,  the  Department  of  Justice,  the 
Bureau  of  Corporations,  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  and 
the  Michigan  and  Minnesota  Tax  Commissions.  Many  of  the 
results  of  these  investigations  have  been  placed  before  the  public 
for  its  instruction  or  amusement.  An  estimate  which  I  made 
recently  places  the  total  amount  of  reports  and  other  publica- 
tions issued  by  the  above  agencies,  and  dealing  with  the  iron 
business  since  1909,  as  being  in  excess  of  twenty  thousand  printed 
pages.  For  convenience  we  may  say  that  over  ten  million  words 
of  printed  information,  advice  or  warning  have  been  showered  on 
this  industry  during  the  past  three  years. 

Of  course  the  bulk  of  this  enormous  tonnage  is  of  no  interest  to 
the  engineer,  or  indeed  to  anyone  else  dealing  with  the  realities 
of  life.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  very  difficult  for  any  set  of 
men,  the  Congressional  Record  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  to 
utter  ten  million  words  on  one  subject  without  including  any 
facts  whatever.  And  so,  on  carefully  examining  this  large  mass  of 
available  published  material,  we  are  rewarded  by  coming  at  inter- 


130 


IRON  ORES 


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MINING  CONDITIONS  AND  COSTS  131 

vals  on  something  which  is  really  of  economic  service.  Most 
such  finds,  it  may  be  noted,  are  to  be  made  in  the  report  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Corporations  on  the  steel  industry,  which  under 
happier  conditions  would  have  been  recognized  as  a  very  remark- 
able monograph  on  an  important  industrial  subject. 

It  is  from  this  report  that  we  can  secure  the  most  detailed  data 
with  regard  to  Lake  ore  costs,  though  as  pointed  out  elsewhere 
there  is  need  for  caution  in  dealing  with  these  data.  The  first 
table  reproduced  here  has  been  rearranged  slightly  as  to  form,  in 
order  to  put  the  various  items  of  cost  into  what  seems  to  be  a  more 
logical  order  and  arrangement.  It  covers  the  average  costs,  dur- 
ing the  years  1902  to  1906  inclusive,  for  a  number  of  the  more 

TABLE  2.— COMPARISON   OF  LAKE   ORE   COSTS,    1902-06  AND    1907-10 

1902-1906  1907-1910 

Tonnage  covered  by  data 88,082,551  tons  88,833,156  tons 

Labor  costs $0.43  $0.35 

Other  mining  costs 0.21  0.20 

Stripping  and  development 0.30  0.11 

Depreciation 0.13  0.13 

Royalties 0.25  0.29 


Total  costs  at  mines 1 . 05  1 . 08 

Rail  freight 0.70  0.74 

Water  freight 0.74  0.72 


Total  cost  at  Lower  Lake  ports $2 . 49  $2 . 54 

General  charges 0.09  0. 16 


Total  book  cost $2.58  $2.70 

TABLE  3.— COSTS  PER  TON  OF  STEEL  CORPORATION  ORE,  1910 

Ranges                                       Mesabi        Vermillion  All  Lake  ranges 

Tonnage  covered  by  data 17,875,059    1,338,110  23,010,216 

Labor  costs $0.21           $0.57  $0.35 

Other  operating  costs 0 . 50             0 . 49  0 . 52 

Royalties 0.34             0.39  0.34 


Total  costs  at  mine $1.05  $1.45  $1.21 

Rail  freights 0.80  0.99  0.74 

Water  freights 0.76  0.76  0.75 

Total  costs  at  Lower  Lake  ports . .  $2.61  $3 . 20  $2 . 70 

General  charges 0.18  0.17  0.18 


Total  book  costs $2.79          $3.37  $2.88 


132 


IRON  ORES 


important  companies  mining  iron  ores  in  the  Lake  Superior 
district. 

The  second  table  requiring  attention  is  one  comparing  the  costs 
for  the  Steel  Corporation  and  two  other  large  companies  for  the 
two  periods  respectively  1902-1906  and  1907-1910.  It  is  here 
presented  as  Table  2. 

A  third  set  of  tables  remains  to  be  noted.  These  are  combined 
here  as  Table  3,  and  cover  the  costs  of  ore  to  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation  during  the  year  1910. 

Purely  for  the  sake  of  the  interesting  comparison  with  the 
foregoing  records  of  recent  costs  in  the  Lake  districts,  it  may  be 
noted  that  Major  Brooks  gave1  the  following  estimate  of  the  cost 
of  mining  iron  ore  on  the  Marquette  range  in  1873,  when  the 
expensive  square-set  method  of  timbering  was  in  use  at  most  of 
the  mines: 


Cost  per  ton 

Percent  of 
total  cost 

Dead  work                             

$0  742 

28  .  1  percent 

Alining  labor                                               .  •  • 

1  050 

39  8 

IVlaterials  tools  etc 

0  313 

11  9 

Handling  and  pumping                 

0  413 

15.6 

Management 

0  122 

4  6 

Total                                     

$2  64 

100  0  percent 

Cost  of  Mining  Red  Ores. — The  red  or  Clinton  ores  which  form 
the  backbone  of  the  Southern  iron  industry  probably  show  less 
variation  in  mining  costs,  at  present,  than  do  any  other  type  of 
ore.  The  differences  in  conditions  between  the  different  red-ore 
mines  are  less  than  those  between  different  brown-ore  mines. 
The  chief  factor  of  difference,  indeed,  is  thickness  of  ore  bed, 
which  does  vary  greatly  from  point  to  point;  and  most  of  the  cost 
differences  arise  from  this  one  variation.  This  uniformity  in 
conditions  and  costs  is  due  to  the  fact  that  most  of  the  Southern 
red-ore  mines  have  reached  about  the  same  stage  of  development. 
In  almost  all  cases  the  leached  soft  ore  has  been  removed;  there  is 
no  longer  any  serious  tonnage  taken  from  open  cuts  along  the 
outcrop;  the  underground  ore  is  won  in  practically  the  same  way 
at  all  mines,  and  so  far  no  shaft  operations  have  been  opened. 

In  the  early  stages  of  the  industry,  while  soft  ores  still  showed 

1  Report  Michigan  Geol.  Survey  for  1873,  p.  255. 


MINING  CONDITIONS  AND  COSTS  133 

in  large  tonnages  along  the  outcrop,  costs  per  ton  must  have  been 
amazingly  low.  At  a  few  points  in  Alabama  and  elsewhere  there 
are  still  small  tonnages  of  soft  ore  won  by  surface  operations, 
either  by  hand  or  by  scraper,  and  in  these  cases  it  is  probable  that 
the  total  costs  chargeable  to  the  soft-ore  tonnage  do  not  exceed 
twenty  to  thirty  cents  per  ton.  It  is  not  only  that  this  ore  is  easy 
to  mine  and  handle,  but  that  there  are  no  development  or  mainte- 
nance charges  to  be  considered.  But  these  favorable  conditions 
are  now  exceptional,  and  practically  all  of  the  red-ore  tonnage 
now  mined  in  the  South  comes  at  far  higher  cost. 

The  typical  mine  in  the  Southern  red-ore  districts  is  operated 
by  a  slope  driven  down  the  dip  of  the  ore,  from  which  entries 
right  and  left  develop  the  ore  on  a  room-and-pillar  system.  The 
slope  may  go  down  at  angles  of  from  15  to  60  degrees,  according 
to  the  dip  of  the  ore  in  the  particular  district,  and  the  work- 
able ore  may  range  from  2J  to  12  feet  in  thickness.  These  two 
factors — dip  and  thickness — are  about  the  only  differences  be- 
tween red-ore  mines.  The  density  of  the  ore  and  the  character  of 
the  roof  show  surprisingly  little  difference,  when  once  the  mines 
have  been  driven  down  below  the  zone  of  surface  leaching,  so  that 
the  actual  cost  of  breaking  ore  and  timbering  does  not  vary  much 
from  mine  to  mine. 

Entirely  aside  from  the  factors  which  have  so  far  been  noted, 
and  overshadowing  them  completely  in  their  influence  on  the 
cost-sheet,  are  some  differences  in  management  and  accounting 
practice  which  it  is  difficult  to  summarize.  Two  mines,  located 
side  by  side,  but  belonging  to  different  companies,  may  differ 
most  remarkably  in  (1)  the  character,  cost  and  standard  of  upkeep 
of  the  fixed  equipment;  (2)  the  foresight  with  which  the  ore  is 
extracted;  and  (3)  the  manner  and  extent  to  which  royalties  or 
amortization  are  charged  off.  And  the  mine  which  is  really 
managed  in  the  best  and  most  economical  way  is  apt,  over  a  short 
period,  to  show  apparently  the  worst  results  so  far  as  costs  are 
concerned. 

It  is  probable  that  the  bulk  of  the  Southern  red-ore  tonnage  is 
now  produced  at  total  costs  varying  from  seventy-five  cents  to 
slightly  over  one  dollar  per  ton,  at  the  mouth  of  the  mine.  Costs 
as  low  as  fifty  to  sixty  cents  per  ton  have  been  reported  from 
underground  operations,  but  it  is  not  likely  that  such  low  costs 
could  be  held  for  any  length  of  time.  On  the  other  hand,  where  a 


134 


IRON  ORES 


very  thin  seam  is  worked,  as  at  some  points  in  Virginia  and  else- 
where, the  costs  per  ton  may  rise  to  $1.50  or  more. 

The  following  table  appears  as  Table  9,  on  page  50  of  the  Report 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Corporations  on  the  Steel  Industry,  Part 
III,  1913. 

BOOK  COSTS  PER  TON  OF  SOUTHERN  RED  ORES,  1902-1906 


1902 

1903 

1904 

1905 

1906 

Average 

Tons  covered  by  table  .... 

1,723,912 

1,896,134 

1,842,403 

2,017,036 

2,151,903 

Labor   

0  47 

0  51 

0  49 

0  47 

0  50 

0  49 

Supplies  and  tools  
Repairs 

0.10 
0  05 

0.08 
0  05 

0.07 
0  07 

0.08 
0  06 

0.11 
0  07 

0.08 
0  06 

General  expense  
Depreciation  and  royalty. 

0.02 
0.07 

0.01 
0.06 

0.02 
0.03 

0.02 
0.03 

0.02 
0.06 

0.02 
0.05 

Total  costs 

0  71 

0  71 

0  68 

0  66 

0  76 

0  70 

Cost  of  Brown-ore  Mining. — Unlike  the  red  ores  which  have 
just  been  discussed,  the  brown  ores  differ  so  widely  among  them- 
selves that  it  is  difficult  to  make  general  statements  as  to  cost. 
The  ores  themselves  differ  widely  in  original  richness,  so  that  there 
are  great  variations  in  the  amount  of  crude  ore  dirt  which  must  be 
handled  in  order  to  produce  a  ton  of  merchantable  ore.  In  addi- 
tion, the  ore  deposits  differ  in  size  and  attitude,  so  that  there  are 
also  differences  in  the  cost  per  ton  of  winning  the  crude  material. 
Taken  together,  these  variations  in  character  of  ore  and  deposit 
lead  to  wide  ranges  in  mining  costs  between  different  districts,  and 
even  between  different  openings  on  the  same  property. 

It  will  simplify  matters  a  little  if  we  make  a  rough  division  of 
brown-ore  operations  into  underground  mines  and  open  cuts,  and 
discuss  the  two  classes  separately.  At  present  the  bulk  of  the 
American  brown-ore  output  is  secured  by  steam-shovel  work  in 
open  cuts;  but  in  the  Oriskany  district  of  Virginia,  at  a  few  other 
points  in  the  South,  and  at  a  number  of  small  mines  in  eastern 
Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  underground  mining  is  practised. 
In  many  instances  the  underground  work  is  merely  a  development 
of  old  open-cut  operations,  and  the  shaft  is  located  at  the  side 
of  or  in  the  old;cut.  Owing  to  the  usual  form  and  character  of 
brown-ore  deposits,  the  workings  are  commonly  wet,  and  the 
roof  is  rarely  good.  Under  these  circumstances  heavy  allow- 
ances must  be  made  for  slides  and  falls,  which  reduce  the 
economy  of  work.  Perhaps  the  range  of  costs  might  be  set  at 
from  fifty  cents  to  one  dollar  and  a  half  per  ton  of  crude  ore 


MINING  CONDITIONS  AND  COSTS  135 

hoisted.  As  against  this  high  cost  must  be  set  the  advantages 
that,  since  it  is  all  hand  work,  it  is  usually  possible  to  sort  the 
material  underground  and  so  secure  better  grade,  and  that 
the  work  is  practically  independent  of  weather  conditions. 

In  the  open  cuts  which  furnish  the  bulk  of  the  brown-ore  supply, 
most  of  the  tonnage  is  usually  extracted  with  the  steam  shovel, 
while  hand  labor  is  used  for  taking  out  small  pockets  of  rich  ore, 
for  cleaning  crevices,  etc.  Under  ordinary  conditions,  there  is 
less  difference  in  the  costs  than  might  be  expected  by  those  accus- 
tomed to  steam-shovel  operations  under  better  conditions.  It 
must  be  recalled  that  a  brown-ore  deposit  is  usually  very  irregular 
in  shape,  in  depth,  and  in  the  distribution  of  the  rich  ore  within 
the  deposit.  All  of  these  facts  interfere  with  the  economic  use 
of  the  shovel;  while  even  more  important  is  the  fact  that  most 
brown-ore  deposits  are  so  located  topographically  that  it  is 
difficult  to  secure  the  proper  track  development  which  insures 
good  car  handling.  Unless  we  are  dealing  with  a  brown-ore 
deposit  of  exceptional  areal  extent,  the  problem  is  entirely  diff- 
erent from  that  encountered  on  the  Mesabi,  and  the  results  are 
correspondingly  different,  even  when  equal  grades  of  supervision 
and  operation  are  maintained. 

At  any  given  mine  costs  may  vary  tremendously  throughout  the 
year.  If  the  operations  happen  to  be  at  the  moment  in  good  ore, 
with  banks  of  good  height  for  shovel  work,  and  if  the  weather 
does  not  interfere,  the  costs  may  be  very  low.  The  table  below 
gives  costs,  per  ton  of  concentrated  ore,  for  a  large  brown-ore  mine 
in  Tennessee  as  published  by  Gillette.  In  each  case  the  costs 

COSTS  OF  BROWN-ORE  MINING  UNDER  FAVORABLE  CONDITIONS 

Steam  shovel        Steam  shovel      Hand  work 

Labor,  excavating $0.070  $0.070  $0. 170 

Labor,  hauling 0.019  0.033  0.027 

Drilling  and  explosives 0.010  0.017  0.019 

Dumping 0.019  0.026  0.013 

Track  work 0.045  0.0341 

Blacksmith,  repairs,  etc 0 . 030  0 . 036  J 

Repair  parts,  etc 0. 025  0. 024  

Coal,  excavating 0. 019  \  „  

Coal,  hauling 0.012  /  

Iron,  lumber,  etc 0 . 008  0 . 007  0 . 002 

Oil,  waste,  etc 0.003  0.004  0.001 


Cost  per  ton  washed  ore $0 . 260  $0 . 284  $0 . 250 


136 


IRON  ORES 


cover  a  full  month's  operations.     Columns  1  and  2  are  for  shovel 
work,  column  3  for  hand  work  in  another  part  of  the  mine. 

To  these  costs  must  be  added,  of  course,  the  direct  washing 
costs,  which  may  have  ranged  between  five  and  ten  cents  per  ton 
of  crude  material.  In  the  shovel  work,  the  washing  ratio  was  4.6 
to  1  for  the  first  month  quoted,  and  5.6  to  1  in  the  other  month. 
For  the  hand  work,  where  they  were  handling  a  much  better  ore, 
the  concentrating  ratio  was  2.4  to  1.  Taking  the  washing  costs 
at  only  five  cents  per  ton  of  crude  material  passed  through  the 
washer,  the  total  costs  for  the  two  steam-shovel  examples  would 
be  forty-nine  and  fifty-six  cents  per  ton  respectively;  while  the 
hand  work  would  total  thirty-seven  cents.  If  laborers  and  steam 
shovels  were  always  in  bonanza,  there  would  be  few  difficulties 
in  brown -ore  mining.  But  when  the  matter  is  considered  over 
longer  periods,  and  proper  allowances  are  made  for  lost  time, 
prospecting,  amortization,  etc.,  it  is  probable  that  the  average 
cost  per  ton  of  the  American  brown-ore  output  is  now  between 
$1.00  and  $1.50. 

BOOK  COSTS  PER  TON  OF  SOUTHERN  BROWN  ORES,  1902-1906 


1902 

1903 

1904 

1905 

1906 

Average 

table 

455,717 

502,077 

503,103 

557,614 

514,685 

Labor  

0  62 

0  61 

0  61 

0  59 

0  70 

0  63 

Supplies  and  tools  
Repairs  

0.06 
0.07 

0.03 
0  07 

0.05 
0  10 

0.09 
0  05 

0.09 
0  10 

0.06 
0  08 

General  expense 

0  06 

0  04 

0  03 

0  04 

0  04 

0  04 

Depreciation   and  roy- 
alty. 

0.06 

0.05 

0.04 

0.04 

0.05 

0.05 

Total 

0  87 

0  80 

0  83 

0  81 

0  98 

0  86 

Cost  of  Mining  Magnetites. — In  attempting  to  summarize  the 
costs  of  mining  magnetites  and  other  hard  ores  (specular  hematite, 
etc.)  in  the  eastern  and  southern  United  States,  we  meet  with 
even  more  difficulty  than  in  considering  brown-ore  costs.  This 
arises  from  the  fact  that  this  particular  group  of  ores,  as  developed 
in  the  Appalachian  region,  presents  great  diversity  in  such  char- 
acters as  affect  operating  conditions  and  costs.  At  the  outset  it 
can  be  recognized  immediately  that  magnetite  deposits  differ 


MINING  CONDITIONS  AND  COSTS  137 

greatly  in  thickness  of  the  ore-body,  in  its  attitude  or  dip,  in  the 
character  of  the  enclosing  rocks,  and  in  other  features  which 
directly  influence  the  cost  of  breaking  ore,  timbering,  hoisting, 
pumping,  etc.  But  when  all  these  matters  have  been  considered, 
and  we  have  arrived  at  some  idea  of  what  a  ton  of  crude  ore  costs 
at  the  mouth  of  the  mine,  we  find  that  the  cost  problem  is  still 
unsettled.  For  magnetites  differ  very  remarkably  in  their 
original  richness,  and  in  the  ease  with  which  they  may  be  con- 
centrated to  merchantable  grade;  and  these  differences  of  course 
affect  the  cost  of  salable  ore  very  directly. 

The  average  magnetite  body  now  worked  in  the  eastern  and 
southern  states  is  a  relatively  thin,  vein-like  mass,  dipping  at 
angles  from  30  degrees  to  vertical;  and  is  therefore  worked  by  a 
steep  incline  or  a  shaft.  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  it  usually 
varies  greatly  in  thickness  and  richness  from  point  to  point  in 
the  mine.  It  is  true  that  there  are  important  exceptions  to 
this  summary,  for  the  Cornwall  ores  of  Pennsylvania  and  many 
of  the  Adirondack  ores  of  New  York  appear  in  thick  masses, 
with  prevailingly  low  dips,  so  as  to  offer  opportunity  for  other 
methods  of  attack.  But  in  general  the  magnetite  problem  in- 
volves breaking  out  a  very  hard  ore,  at  considerable  depth,  and 
handling  a  large  amount  of  water.  Under  these  circumstances 
it  is  perhaps  fair  to  assume  that  the  mining  costs  will  range  from 
seventy-five  cents  to  $1.50  per  ton  of  crude  ore  placed  at  the 
mouth  of  the  mine.  To  this  must  be  added  direct  concentrating 
costs,  and  the  total  cost  must  then  be  charged  against  the  tonnage 
of  merchantable  ore  produced.  It  is  probable  that  such  total 
costs  will  range  from  $1.50  to  $2.50  per  ton  of  concentrates 
made. 

An  entirely  different  type  of  problem  is  encountered  when  it 
is  proposed  to  quarry  out  a  large  mass  of  outcropping  magnetite, 
probably  of  low  grade,  and  concentrate  it  to  salable  ore.  Such 
masses  are  known  to  exist  at  many  points  in  the  southern  and 
eastern  United  States,  and  with  the  increasing  demand  for  ore 
and  the  improvements  in  crushing  and  concentrating  methods 
it  is  likely  that  their  working  will  be  taken  up  at  numerous  points 
in  the  near  future.  Under  such  conditions  the- mining  or  quarry- 
ing of  the  crude  material  may  range  in  cost  from  twenty-five 
to  fifty  cents  per  ton,  depending  principally  upon  local  conditions 
as  to  water,  presence  of  joint  planes,  etc. 


138 


IRON  ORES 


The  actual  work  of  breaking  out  crude  magnetite  ore  in  an 
open-cut  mine  in  southeastern  New  York  has  been  reported  as 
giving  costs  which,  reduced  to  a  tonnage  basis,  are  as  follows: 

Labor $0.245 

Explosives 0 . 032 

Steam  for  drills 0 . 012 

Repairs  and  supplies 0 . 006 


Cost  per  ton,  crude  ore $0 . 295 

The  following  tables  of  cost  are  taken  from  the  report  of  the 
Commission  of  Corporations: 

COST  PER  TON  OF  EASTERN  MAGNETITES,  1902-1906 


Tonnage  covered 

1902 

1903 

1904 

1905 

1906 

by  table 

633,408 

487,999 

502,475 

1,095,358 

1,247,490 

Average 

Labor  

0  24 

0  38 

0  34 

0  35 

0  42 

0  35 

Supplies  
Materials  
General  expense.  .  .  . 
Depreciation  
Royalty  

0.10 
0.02 
0.14 
0.18 

0.16 
0.02 
0.19 
0.29 

0.15 
0.01 
0.20 
0.10 

0.12 
0.01 
0.09 
0.45 

0.17 
0.01 
0.10 
0.22 
0  04 

0.15 
0.01 
0.13 
0.27 
0  01 

Total  cost  

0.68 

1.04 

0.80 

1.02 

0.96 

0.92 

COST  PER   TON   OF  WESTERN  AND  CUBAN  HEMATITES, 
1902-1906 


Tonnage  covered 

1902 

1903 

1904 

1905 

1906 

by  report 

905,275 

883,274 

527,873 

1,018,297 

1,246,066 

Average 

Labor 

0  45 

0  47 

0  50 

0  50 

0  57 

0  50 

Supplies  

0.16 

0.17 

0.22 

0.24 

0  28 

0  22 

Materials  
General  expense.  .  .  . 
Depreciation  

0.14 
0.10 
0.41 

0.09 
0.11 
0.15 

0.03 
0.12 
0.04 

0.06 
0.09 
0.31 

0.04 
0.11 
0  32 

0.07 
0.11 

0  27 

Royalty  

0.05 

0  06 

0  04 

0  03 

0  03 

0  04 

Total  cost  

1.31 

1.05 

0.95 

1.23 

1.35 

1.21 

Cleveland   District,    England. — The   iron    carbonate    of   the 
Cleveland  district  occurs,  as  described  in  another  chapter,  in 


MINING  CONDITIONS  AND  COSTS  139 

thick  beds,  dipping  only  slightly.  The  beds  as  worked  range 
from  almost  16  feet  of  workable  ore  down  to  10  feet  or  so  at  the 
better  mines.  Originally  opened  by  quarries  along  the  outcrop, 
these  were  followed  by  slightly  inclined  tunnels  underground. 
At  present  the  larger  portion  of  the  tonnage  is  extracted  from 
shafts  located  well  back  from  the  outcrop. 

As  to  costs,  the  only  data  available  are  detailed  enough,  but  do 
not.  relate  to  recent  years.  Both  Kirchoff  and  Kendall  furnish 
ample  details  for  the  years  from  1890  to  1900  or  thereabout;  and 
since  most  of  the  labor  payments  in  the  Cleveland  district  are  on 
a  sliding  scale,  based  on  the  price  of  Middlesboro  pig  metal,  it  will 
be  possible  to  make  sufficiently  accurate  estimates  for  our  present 
purposes.  As  a  further  check,  there  are  available  official  statistics 
as  to  the  average  value  per  ton  of  the  ore  from  the  Cleveland 
district.  This  appears  to  range,  over  a  series  of  years,  from  two 
and  one-half  to  four  shillings  per  ton  of  crude  ore  at  the  mine, 
or  say  sixty  cents  to  one  dollar  per  ton. 

All  of  the  ore,  it  must  be  recalled,  is  calcined  before  charging 
to  the  furnace  and  the  calcining  kilns  are  located  at  the  furnaces. 
Assuming  that  the  average  cost  of  crude  ore,  grading  some  30 
percent  metallic  iron,  is  about  eighty  cents,  delivered  at  fur- 
nace, an  additional  charge  of  perhaps  ten  to  twenty  cents  per 
ton  of  crude  would  cover  fuel  and  labor  for  calcining.  The  aver- 
age cost  of  ore  at  furnace  is  probably  not  far  from  three  to 
three  and  one-half  cents  per  unit  during  ordinarily  prosperous 
years. 

Lorraine -Luxemburg  Ores. — The  ores  of  the  various  portions 
of  the  Lorraine-Luxemburg  basin  differ  greatly  in  thickness  and 
cover,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  descriptions  in  a  later  chapter. 
Both  of  these  factors,  of  course,  exert  a  large  influence  over 
mining  methods  and  costs. 

Along  the  eastern  border  of  the  field,  and  along  some  of  the 
ravines  entering  it,  open-cut  mining  is  still  possible  in  places. 
The  tonnage  worked  by  stripping  and  open-cut  work  is  still  large 
and,  on  the  average,  cheaply  secured;  but  as  the  stripping  be- 
comes heavier  costs  are  rising.  Open-cut  ore,  under  favorable 
conditions,  can  be  mined  and  placed  in  cars  for  about  twenty- 
five  cents  per  ton. 

In  the  southern  portion  of  the  field  horizontal  tunnels  are  driven 
in  to  the  ore-body,  while  further  west  on  the  plateaus  deep  shafts 


140  IRON  ORES 

are  in  operation.  For  these  underground  workings  total  mining 
costs  range  from  fifty  to  seventy-five  cents  per  ton. 

Taking  the  average  grade  of  the  ore  into  consideration,  we  may 
safely  assume  that  the  Lorraine-Luxemburg  tonnage  annually 
mined  is  produced  at  costs  ranging  between  the  limits  of  one  and 
one-half  and  three  cents  per  unit  of  metallic  iron  contained  in  the 
ore.  This  compares  closely  with  the  unit  cost  of  our  Birmingham 
red  ores;  and  is  somewhat  above  the  average  unit  cost  of  Mesabi 
ore  at  mine.  But,  in  comparing  industrial  values,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  Lorraine  and  Birmingham  ores  when  once 
mined  are  practically  at  the  furnace,  while  the  Mesabi  costs  are 
increased  by  heavy  transportation  charges.  A  fairer  comparison 
for  Lorraine  and  Birmingham  is  the  Cleveland  district,  previ- 
ously considered. 

Comparison  of  Principal  Districts. — The  data  on  mining  costs 
which  have  been  presented,  incomplete  and  variable  though 
they  may  be  in  some  respects,  are  at  least  sufficient  to  permit 
certain  broad  comparisons  between  the  ore  costs  of  the  principal 
iron-  and  steel-producing  districts  of  the  world. 

The  three  producing  districts  whose  competition  is  commonly 
understood  as  fixing  prices  are  the  Lorraine  region,  the  Middles- 
boro  district  of  England,  and  the  Pittsburgh-Chicago  area  of  the 
United  States.  To  these  certain  others  must  be  added,  if  we 
are  to  look  beyond  the  present  day  for  even  a  little  way.  The 
additional  factors  in  world  competition  are  Sydney,  Nova  Scotia; 
Birmingham,  Alabama;  and  China.  Another  possible  factor 
may  in  time  become  a  reality,  but  it  needs  no  discussion  at 
present. 

The  six  localities  mentioned  are  all  great  steel  producers,  or 
may  soon  become  so.  They  are  all  amply  supplied  with1  coal, 
with  ore,  and  with  markets.  Of  the  six,  four  have  water  trans- 
portation which  gives  them  export  advantages;  two,  Pittsburgh 
and  Birmingham,  are  inland  points.  Of  the  six,  China  is  supplied 
with  ridiculously  cheap  ore  because  of  local  labor  conditions; 
Sydney,  Lorraine,  Middlesboro  and  Birmingham  obtain  a  high- 
phosphorus  ore  at  from  two  to  three  and  one-half  cents  per  unit 
of  iron;  Chicago  and  Pittsburgh  obtain  a  dearer  ore,  low  in 
phosphorus. 

Of  the  four  high-phosphorus  centers,  Lorraine  has  one  advan- 
tage, for  its  ores  yield  a  pig  metal  with  sufficient  phosphorus  for 


MINING  CONDITIONS  AND  COSTS  141 

conversion  by  the  basic  Bessemer  process;  Middlesboro  and 
Sydney  will  produce  pig  carrying  1.4  to  1.8  percent  phosphorus; 
Birmingham  pig  will  carry  1.0  percent  or  thereabouts. 

As  against  the  cheaper  ores  of  the  four  centers  just  discussed, 
Chicago  and  Pittsburgh  have  the  best  local  and  non-attackable 
markets;  and  Pittsburgh  has  the  cheapest  and  best  fuel  of  all. 


CHAPTER  XII 
FURNACE  AND  MILL  REQUIREMENTS 

In  the  preceding  chapters  it  has  been  possible  to  discuss  for- 
mation, prospecting  and  mining  of  iron  ores  without  necessarily 
making  direct  reference  to  their  chemical  composition  or  market- 
ability. It  is  now  necessary,  however,  to  turn  our  attention  to 
these  subjects,  and  to  summarize  their  effects  upon  the  commercial 
and  industrial  worth  of  different  ores. 

Before  taking  up  the  composition  and  concentration  of  iron 
ores  it  will  be  well  to  consider  the  uses  to  which  these  ores  will 
be  put,  the  requirements  of  the  various  processes  by  which  they 
will  be  put  into  final  market  form,  and  the  influence  which  these 
different  requirements  have  upon  ore  values. 

It  will  be  understood  that  even  the  best  of  our  commercial 
ores  carry,  as  mined,  considerable  percentages  of  impurities; 
while  the  average  ores  now  in  use  are  very  far  from  pure.  Before 
taking  up  the  question  of  concentrating  such  ores  in  order  to 
remove  part  or  all  of  the  impurities,  it  will  be  of  advantage  to 
consider  the  operation  and  requirements  of  the  blast-furnace, 
for  the  smelting  process  obviously  fixes  the  extent  to  which  con- 
centration is  necessary  or  desirable.  It  will  be  found  that  certain 
impurities  can  be  removed  so  readily  and  cheaply  in  the  furnace 
operation  that  it  will  rarely  pay  to  attempt  their  previous  re- 
moval by  concentration;  that  other  impurities  are  removable 
by  the  furnace,  but  only  at  considerable  expense,  and  that  still 
other  impurities  are  practically  irremovable  by  the  furnace  under 
commercial  conditions.  It  is  clear  enough  that  if  the  ore  con- 
tains impurities  of  either  of  these  two  last  classes,  it  will  pay  to 
go  to  considerable  expense  to  remove  them  before  sending  the 
ore  to  the  furnace. 

The  Status  of  the  Blast-furnace. — Practically  all  of  the  iron 
and  steel  products  now  in  use  have  been  derived  ultimately  from 
the  reduction  of  iron  ores  in  a  blast  furnace;  and  it  is  probable 
that  for  a  long  time  to  come  the  blast  furnace  will  remain  the 
most  important  source  of  commercial  supply  for  the  ferrous  metals. 

142 


FURNACE  AND  MILL  REQUIREMENTS         143 

It  is  true  that,  under  exceptionally  favorable  conditions,  certain 
special  products  may  even  now  be  manufactured  in  other  ways, 
but  none  of  these  other  processes  seem  likely  to  become  of  great 
commercial  importance  in  the  near  future.  Under  these  con- 
ditions, since  practically  all  of  the  iron  ores  mined  will  have  to 
pass  through  the  blast  furnace,  it  seems  best  to  limit  the  present 
discussion  to  that  particular  process,  though  at  various  points 
attention  may  be  called  to  the  different  conditions  and  limita- 
tions which  may  be  imposed  by  electric  oro  ther  processes.  On 
later  pages,  where  the  growth  and  development  of  the  American 
iron  industry  is  discussed,  further  details  will  be  found  regarding 
the  changes  in  fuels  and  other  matters  affecting  furnace  practice. 
Here  it  will  only  be  necessary  to  outline  briefly  the  operation  of 
the  furnace,  with  special  relation  to  the  character  of  ore  which 
it  can  handle  economically. 

Construction  and  Operation. — The  modern  blast  furnace  is 
essentially  a  steel  shell,  lined  with  fire  brick.  Its  cross-section  is 
circular  at  all  levels,  but  its  diameter  varies  at  different  portions 
of  its  height.  As  to  dimensions,  various  furnaces  now  in  use  vary 
from  80  to  110  feet  in  height,  and  from  16  to  24  feet  in  maximum 
diameter. 

In  converting  iron  ore  into  pig  metal,  the  furnace  requires  four 
raw  materials — ore,  fuel,  flux  and  air. 

Of  these  four  raw  materials  three  are  introduced  at  the  top  of 
the  furnace — the  fuel,  the  ore  and  the  flux.  The  remaining  raw 
material — air — is  blown  in  at  a  point  relatively  near  its  base, 
after  being  (usually)  heated  and  (occasionally)  dried. 

Under  blast,  the  fuel  attains  a  high  temperature,  the  ore  is 
reduced  and  melted,  while  the  flux,  the  ash  of  the  fuel  and  the 
earthy  impurities  of  the  ore  combine  as  a  fusible  slag.  The 
molten  iron,  sinking  to  the  hearth,  is  drawn  off  at  intervals,  while 
the  lighter  slag  floats  on  its  surface  and  is  tapped  off  at  higher 
levels.  Waste  gases,  with  more  or  less  dust,  ascend  from  the 
heated  zone.  The  relationship  of  the  various  raw  materials  and 
products  may  be  expressed  semi-diagrammatically  as  below. 

The  successful  operation  of  the  blast-furnace,  from  the  purely 
physical  standpoint,  requires  that  it  have  adequate  and  satisfac- 
tory supplies  of  air,  water,  fuel,  flux,  ore  and  labor.  In  addition, 
in  order  that  its  operations  may  yield  profits  as  well  as  pig  iron,  it 
will  also  require  capital,  intelligent  management,  transportation 


144  IRON  ORES 

routes  leading  to  adequate  markets,  and  rates  which  will  enable 
it  to  place  its  product  in  those  markets  on  at  least  a  competitive 
basis. 

RAW  MATERIALS  PRODUCTS 

Iron  ore\  -  Waste  gases 


-Dust 

-slag ; 

x  Pig  iron 

If  absolutely  pure  ores  and  fuels  were  available,  the  procedure 
would  be  simplified  and  the  cost  of  manufacture  greatly  reduced. 
For  example,  if  we  could  secure  any  quantity  of  absolutely  pure 
ore — that  is  to  say,  an  iron  oxide  mineral  containing  nothing  but 
iron  and  oxygen — and  if  pure  carbon  free  from  ash  were  avail- 
able for  fuel,  there  would  be  no  necessity  for  adding  any  fluxing 
material,  and  the  quantity  of  fuel  used  would  be  simply  that 
required  to  reduce  the  iron  to  the  metallic  state  and  to  put  it 
into  a  molten  condition.  This  would  be  a  much  smaller  quantity 
per  ton  of  product  than  is  now  used  at  the  best  plants,  and  costs 
would  be  reduced  correspondingly. 

But  with  conditions  as  they  are,  the  best  commercial  ores  con- 
tain impurities,  and  the  best  fuels  will  leave  more  or  less  ash  after 
burning.  These  conditions  have  two  effects  on  the  furnace  proc- 
ess. They  make  it  necessary  to  employ  some  fluxing  material, 
and  they  increase  the  fuel  required  by  the  process.  As  all  of 
these  factors  react  upon  the  ore  question,  it  will  be  well  to  dis- 
cuss briefly  the  relations  of  fuel  and  fluxing  material,  before  tak- 
ing up  the  matter  of  ores. 

Blast-furnace  Fuels. — Fuel  is  used  in  the  blast  furnace  pri- 
marily to  furnish  the  heat  required  to  smelt  the  ore;  and  if  a 
pure  native  iron  were  employed  as  ore  this  would  be  the  only 
reason  for  using  fuel.  But  with  ordinary  impure  ores,  the  fuel 
must  serve  two  additional  purposes,  for  it  must  act  to  reduce  the 
iron  oxide  or  carbonate  to  the  metallic  state,  and  it  must  afford 
sufficient  additional  heat  to  fuse  the  entire  charge,  so  that  flux  and 
ore  may  react  upon  each  other  chemically.  Under  existing  con- 
ditions, therefore,  fuel  is  needed  to  supply  both  heat  and  reducing 


FURNACE  AND  MILL  REQUIREMENTS         145 

action,  a  fact  which  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  when  electric  smelt- 
ing methods  are  under  discussion.  Even  when  the  heat  for 
fusion  can  be  supplied  by  electricity,  carbon  in  some  form  will 
still  be  required  to  reduce  the  iron  oxides  to  metallic  iron;  so  that 
the  use  of  the  electric  furnace  does  not  do  away  entirely  with  the 
necessity  for  adding  charcoal  or  coke  to  the  charge. 

Three  types  of  fuel  have  been,  at  different  times  and  in  different 
localities,  largely  used  in  iron  smelting.  These  are  respectively 
charcoal,  coal  and  coke.  In  a  later  chapter  detailed  figures  will 
be  given  concerning  their  respective  importance  at  different  dates. 
Here  it  need  only  be  said  that  coke  is  now  by  far  the  most  impor- 
tant of  the  world's  fuels;  and  that  at  present  about  98  percent  of 
the  American  iron  production  is  made  by  its  use,  as  compared 
with  some  1  percent  made  with  anthracite  coal,  and  1  percent 
made  with  charcoal.  For  all  practical  purposes,  attention  may 
therefore  be  confined  to  coke,  when  modern  blast-furnace  fuels  are 
under  discussion. 

Limiting  the  discussion  in  this  fashion,  it  may  be  said  that  even 
the  best  cokes  now  available  bring  considerable  impurities  into 
the  furnace,  and  that  in  future  the  average  grade  of  coke  used  may 
be  expected  to  decrease  quite  rapidly,  for  the  pick  of  the  British 
cokes,  the  Connellsville  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  New  River  of 
West  Virginia  are  far  from  being  inexhaustible.  Smelting  a  60 
percent  Lake  ore  with  Connellsville  coke  was  a  far  different 
thing  from  using  a  30  to  36  percent  Alabama  or  Luxembourg  ore 
with  such  cokes  as  are  locally  available;  and  these  facts  alone 
are  sufficient  to  point  out  that  pig  iron  must  in  future  be  a  dearer 
commodity  than  it  is  at  present. 

The  coke  is  bought  and  used  for  the  sake  of  the  fixed  carbon  it 
contains,  which  furnishes  both  heat  and  reducing  action.  But  in 
addition  to  this  constituent,  commercial  coke  brings  into  the 
furnace  a  certain  amount  of  silica,  alumina,  iron  oxide,  lime, 
sulphur,  phosphorus,  etc.,  and  all  of  these  must  be  taken  care  of  in 
the  furnace  operations.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  impurities  con- 
tained in  the  ash  of  the  coke  are  substantially  the  same  that  occur 
in  ordinary  iron  ores.  The  coke  rarely  brings  in  any  new  problem 
in  metallurgy;  it  simply  accentuates  the  old  ones. 

Fluxing  Materials. — In  smelting  iron  ores  a  certain  portion  of 
the  impurities  contained  in  the  ore  may  be  volatilized  by  the 

heat,  and  driven  off  as  gases.     This  is  the  case,  for  example, 
10 


146  IRON  ORES 

with  whatever  moisture,  carbon  dioxide  or  organic  matter 
which  the  ore  may  have  contained;  for  all  of  these  impurities  will 
readily  disappear  under  the  influence  of  the  high  temperature  of 
the  furnace.  A  part  of  the  sulphur  brought  in  by  the  ore  may 
also  be  removed  in  this  simple  fashion,  but  not  so  readily  nor  so 
completely  as  the  impurities  previously  mentioned.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  more  important  impurities 
contained  in  the  ore  and  coke  can  not  be  so  driven  off  by  simple 
heating,  but  on  the  contrary  will  fuse  with  the  iron.  Silica, 
alumina,  lime,  magnesia,  phosphorus,  and  all  the  metallic  impuri- 
ties will  act  in  this  way;  and  this  fact  introduces  the  necessity  for 
the  employment  of  fluxing  materials. 

It  is  of  course  necessary  to  separate  the  molten  iron  from  the 
non-volatile  impurities  which  have  fused  with  it.  In  order  to 
accomplish  this,  the  mixture  charged  into  the  furnace  must 
contain  such  relative  proportions  of  lime,  magnesia,  silica  and 
alumina  that  these  elements  will  combine  to  form  a  light  fluid 
slag,  which  can  be  drawn  off  from  on  top  of  the  heavier  molten 
iron.  Occasionally  an  ore  is  found  whose  impurities  are  so 
balanced  that  the  ore  is  naturally  self-fluxing  or  self-slagging; 
but  this  is  a  very  rare  case.  In  by  far  the  majority  of  instances 
the  ore  will  carry  too  much  of  one  element,  so  that  to  get  a  proper 
slag  it  is  necessary  to  add  to  the  charge  some  fluxing  material 
containing  a  counter-balancing  amount  of  the  other  slag-forming 
elements.  For  example,  the  usual  ore  will  carry  too  much  silica 
and  alumina;  and  in  this  case  it  will  be  necessary  to  use  some 
basic  material  (limestone,  dolomite,  etc.)  to  balance  the  excessive 
amount  of  acid  elements  in  the  ore.  If,  as  in  rarer  cases,  the  ore 
naturally  carries  too  much  lime,  it  would  be  necessary  to  add 
silica  in  some  form — preferably  by  using  a  very  siliceous  ore 
as  part  of  the  charge. 

The  Chemical  Limitations  of  the  Blast  Furnace. — From  the 
preceding  summary  of  blast-furnace  operation,  which  is  neces- 
sarily brief,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  furnace  can  remove  certain 
impurities  from  the  ore  very  readily  and  cheaply;  that  it  can 
remove  certain  other  impurities,  but  only  with  difficulty  or  at 
considerable  direct  cost;  and  that  a  third  class  of  impurities  are 
either  entirely  resistant  to  the  furnace,  or  could  only  be  removed 
by  it  at  a  prohibitive  expense.  These  facts  have,  of  course,  a 
very  direct  influence  on  the  matter  of  ore  concentration;  for  they 


FURNACE  AND  MILL  REQUIREMENTS         147 

fix  the  expense  to  which  we  can  go  to  remove  or  lessen  any  im- 
purity before  charging  the  ore  into  the  furnace. 

These  results  on  concentrating  practice  may  be  summarized  as 
follows:  (1)  Water,  carbon  dioxide  and  organic  matter  are  re- 
moved by  the  blast-furnace  practically  by  the  use  of  its  own 
surplus  heat,  so  that  their  removal  by  the  furnace  does  not  involve 
any  direct  expense.  If  the  ore  mine  is  located  at  or  very  near  the 
furnace,  there  is  therefore  no  reason  why  we  should  attempt  to 
remove  these  impurities  by  preliminary  treatment.  If,  however, 
the  mine  and  furnace  are  widely  separated,  so  that  freight  or 
haulage  costs  are  of  importance,  it  will  often  pay  to  remove  the 
volatile  impurities  at  the  mine  so  as  to  save  paying  freight  on 
them. 

(2)  Silica,  alumina,  lime,  magnesia  and  other  rock-forming 
impurities  fall  in  the  second  class.     This  group  can  be  removed  by 
the  furnace,   but  only  in  the  form  of  slag.     Their  removal, 
though  simple  enough,  therefore  involves  a  direct  additional  cost, 
for  each  pound  of  such  impurity  contained  in  the  ore  requires  an 
additional  amount  of  fluxing  material  to  balance  it,  and  an  addi- 
tional amount  of  fuel  to  fuse  the  impurity  and  the  added  flux. 
The  extent  to  which  it  will  pay  to  remove  such  impurities  is 
determined  by  the  cost  of  coke,  freight  rates,  etc.;  and  in  any 
given  case  can  be  calculated  in  advance  quite  precisely. 

(3)  [Phosphorus,  sulphur,  and  the  metallic  impurities  (manganese, 
chromium,  etc.)  fall  in  the  third  class.     In  this  case   the  blast 
furnace  is  practically  powerless  to  remove  or  seriously  lessen  the 
impurity;  for  under  normal  operating  conditions  impurities  of  this 
class  do  not  pass  out  with  the  slag,  but  combine  in  part  or  entirely 
with  the  molten  pig  metal.     It  is  perfectly  true  that  the  furnace 
can  be  so  operated  and  charged  as  to  remove  the  bulk  of  the  titan- 
ium and  sulphur,  and  much  of  the  manganese;  but  in  making  the 
blast  furnace  do  this  work  we  are  using  it  for  something  outside 
its  proper  and  economical  sphere  of  action.     If  therefore  the  pig 
metal  is  to  be  used  in  a  further  process  requiring  absence  or  low 
percentages  of  sulphur,  phosphorus  and  metallic  impurities,  it 
will  pay  to  go  to  considerable  expense  to  remove  such  impurities 
from  the  ore  by  concentration  previous  to  charging  it  into  the 
furnace. 

Other  things  being  equal,  the  rapidity  and  completeness  of 
chemical  reactions  are  increased  by  diminishing  the  size  of  the 


148  IRON  ORES 

particles  involved,  and  by  placing  them  in  closer  contact.  If 
therefore  we  regard  the  operation  of  the  blast  furnace  as  being 
simply  an  attempt  to  produce  certain  chemical  reactions,  by  the 
aid  of  heat,  in  the  most  economical  manner,  it  would  seem  that 
the  maximum  efficiency  would  be  attained  if  the  furnace  were 
charged  with  an  intimately  mixed  mass  of  pulverized  coke,  ore 
and  flux.  From  a  purely  theoretical  viewpoint,  this  might  be 
true,  but  certain  practical  difficulties  stand  in  the  way  of  using 
such  a  charge,  though  the  tendency  of  modern  practice  seems  to 
be  in  that  direction. 

Regarded  simply  as  a  metal-producing  appliance,  the  modern 
blast  furnace  at  its  best  has  reached  close  to  its  possible  limit  of 
efficiency,  and  we  can  hardly  expect  further  great  improvements 
from  this  standpoint.  Of  course  considerable  advance  in  average 
practice  can  fairly  be  expected,  for  there  are  many  localities  where 
the  furnace  itself,  its  method  of  operation,  or  the  preparation  of 
the  charge  could  be  better  than  at  present. 

The  improvements  in  furnace  results  are  to  be  looked  for  in 
another  direction,  and  will  consist  in  careful  utilization  of  the 
slag  and  of  the  various  products  issuing  from  the  top  of  the  fur- 
nace. The  rising  current  of  gas  carries  off  a  number  of  valuable 
products — heat,  volatilized  compounds  and  dust.  All  of  these 
can  be  recovered  and  utilized.  The  four  main  types  of  future 
improvement  in  furnace  practice  are  therefore  likely  to  be  along 
the  lines  respectively  of: 

a.  Utilization  of  heat  carried  off  in  various  forms. 

b.  Recovery  of  alkalies,  cyanide,  etc.,  from  volatilized  com- 

pounds. 

c.  Recovery  of  valuable  constituents  of  dust. 

d.  Utilization  of  slag. 

All  of  these  are  feasible,  and  all  are  practised  at  some  point  now. 

The  Utilization  of  Pig  Iron. — The  iron  produced  in  the  blast- 
furnace is  pig  iron.  Because  of  its  chemical  impurities  and  phy- 
sical structure,  pig  iron,  is  not  serviceable  as  a  final  product,  but 
is  to  be  regarded  as  merely  an  intermediate  stage  in  the  process  of 
manufacture.  With  only  trifling  exceptions,  all  of  the  pig  iron 
produced  by  blast  furnaces  goes  either: 

1.  To  the  foundry,  for  remelting  and  conversion  into  cast-iron 
products ; 


FURNACE  AND  MILL  REQUIREMENTS         149 

2.  To  the  puddling  mill,  for  purification  and  conversion  into 
wrought-iron;  or, 

3.  To  the  steel  furnace,  for  conversion  into  steel. 

There  have  been  great  changes  during  the  past  century,  and 
even  during  the  past  two  decades,  in  the  relative  proportions  of 
the  total  pig-iron  tonnage  which  are  used  in  these  three  ways. 
With  the  rapid  growth  of  the  steel  industry,  the  percentage  of  the 
total  pig-iron  output  converted  into  steel  has  risen  rapidly,  while 
that  sent  to  the  puddling  mill  has  fallen  to  almost  negligible  pro- 
portions. The  foundry  consumption  has  grown  in  absolute 
amount,  but  not  so  rapidly  as  the  steel-furnace  consumption.  At 
present  perhaps  five-sixths  of  the  total  American  output  of  pig 
iron  is  converted  into  steel,  and  almost  all  of  the  balance  is  used 
in  the  iron  foundry. 

The  Various  Steel  Processes. — There  have  also  been  great 
changes  in  the  relative  importance  of  the  various  steel-making 
processes.  In  order  to  make  this  point  clear,  a  word  of  explana- 
tion as  to  the  relations  of  the  various  steel-making  processes  may 
not  come  amiss.  Detailed  consideration  of  these  technical 
matters  can  not  be  taken  up  he're,  but  for  our  present  purposes 
the  following  summary  may  be  sufficient. 

Disregarding  the  relatively  unimportant  output  of  steel  pro- 
duced by  the  crucible,  electric  and  other  minor  methods,  it  may 
be  said  that  practically  all  of  our  commercial  product  is  made  by 
treating  pig  iron  either  in  a  Bessemer  converter  or  in  an  open- 
hearth  furnace.  Generally  speaking,  the  steel  made  in  a  con- 
verter can  be  produced  at  lower  cost,  and  in  larger  quantities 
compared  with  the  cost  and  size  of  the  plant.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  open-hearth  process  is  more  completely  under  control  of  the 
operator,  and  the  product  can  be  made  to  conform  more  closely 
to  his  requirements  as  to  composition.  So  much  being  under- 
stood, it  must  now  be  noted  that  each  of  these  general  methods — 
the  open  hearth  and  the  converter  or  Bessemer — can  be  used  in 
either  of  two  ways: 

1.  As  an  acid  process,  when  the  pig-iron  used  is  already  low  in 
phosphorus;  or 

2.  As  a  basic  process,  when  high-phosphorus  pig  iron  is  to  be 
used. 

When  pig  iron  is  made  in  the  blast  furnace,  the  metallic  iron 
absorbs  all  of  the  phosphorus  which  was  present  both  in  the  ore 


150  IRON  ORES 

and  in  the  fuel.  Phosphorus  is  a  highly  undesirable  element 
in  steel,  and  it  is  clear  that  the  only  two  ways  in  which  a  low- 
phosphorus  steel  can  be  produced  are : 

(a)  To  start  with  ores  very  low  in  phosphorus,  thus  making  a 
low-phosphorus  pig  iron.     This  can  be  converted  into  steel  either 
in   a  Bessemer  converter  or  in   an   open-hearth  furnace.     In 
either  case,  since  the  iron  is  already  low  in  phosphorus,  no  special 
care  need  be  taken  to  reduce  this  element,  and  the  lining  and 
charge  of  the  furnace  or  converter  may  be  siliceous  or   acid. 
When  starting  with  low-phosphorus  ores  and  pig  iron,  therefore, 
we  may  adopt  either  the  acid  Bessemer  or  the  acid  open-hearth 
steel  processes. 

(b)  When,  however,  we  start  with  ores  high  in  phosphorus,  all 
of  this  element  is  taken  up  by  the  pig  iron;  and  it  is  necessary 
to  reduce  it  greatly  during  the  conversion  of  the  iron  into  steel. 
To  be  efficient  for  this  purpose  the  converter  or  open-hearth 
furnace  must  have  a  basic  (instead  of  an  acid  or  siliceous)  charge 
and  lining;  and  the  process  adopted  may  therefore  be  either  the 
basic  Bessemer  or  the  basic  open-hearth 

The  four  processes  which  have  been  named  above  account  for 
practically  all  of  the  heavy  steel  production  of  the  world,  for 
other  processes  are  used  merely  for  special  products  of  minor 
importance  so  far  as  tonnage  is  concerned. 

Nothing  that  has  been  said  concerning  the  rapid  development 
in  the  use  of  the  basic  steel  processes  all  over  the  world  must  be 
allowed  to  minimize  the  fact  that  their  adoption  is  not  a  matter 
of  choice,  but  of  necessity.  There  is  nothing  particularly  at- 
tractive about  basic  methods,  and  with  the  one  exception  below 
noted  they  are  more  expensive,  ton  for  ton,  than  the  correspond- 
ing acid  processes  Phosphorus,  in  the  quantities  in  which  it 
usually  occurs  in  either  ores  or  pig  iron,  is  a  peculiarly  undesir- 
able element  from  every  point  of  view;  and  it  costs  money  to 
remove  it.  To  use  the  words  of  a  distinguished  engineer  regard- 
ing the  purification  of  water  supplies,  we  would  prefer  innocence 
to  repentance;  and  it  is  only  because  low-phosphorus  ores  are 
everywhere  becoming  scarce  that  the  basic  processes  are  growing 
in  importance. 

There  is,  however,  one  very  important  exception  to  this 
summary  of  the  subject,  as  noted  in  the  previous  paragraph. 
Phosphorus  in  the  pig  always  increases  the  cost  of  making  steel ; 


FURNACE  AND  MILL  REQUIREMENTS         151 

but  if  the  pig  contain  over  a  certain  amount  of  phosphorus,  the 
resulting  slag  will  be  rich  enough  in  phosphoric  acid  to  be 
merchantable  as  a  fertilizer.  At  a  certain  point,  therefore, 
phosphorus  actually  becomes  a  money-maker  for  the  plant.  The 
basic  Bessemer  plants  of  Germany  rely  largely  on  this  fact  for 
their  profits;  and  some  of  our  own  Southern  iron  districts  will 
come  to  it  in  time. 

ALLOWABLE  PHOSPHORUS  IN  PIG  FOR  VARIOUS  UTILIZATIONS 

Acid  open-hearth — less  than  0.05  percent 

Acid  Bessemer — less  than  0.10  percent 

Basic  open-hearth  for  normal  process,   not    over    1.50  percent   and 

preferably,  not  over  1.0  percent:  for  special  processes,  1.50  percent 

and  over. 

Basic  Bessemer — at  least  1.50  percent,  preferably  over  2  percent. 
Foundry  iron — wide  range,  according  to  special  use  of  the  iron. 

Factors  Influencing  Metallurgic  Value. — The  preceding  sum- 
mary of  the  chemical  limitations  of  the  blast  furnace,  taken  in 
connection  with  some  easily  understood  physical  considerations, 
enable  us  to  group  the  principal  factors  which  exert  an  important 
influence  on  the  metallurgic  value  of  iron  ores  in  the  following 
six  classes: 

1.  Richness  in  iron  content. 

2.  Presence  and  amount  of  metallic  impurities. 

3.  Composition  of  the  gangue — as  to  silica,  etc. 

4.  Presence  of  sulphur  and  phosphorus. 

5.  Presence  of  volatile  impurities. 

6.  Physical  characteristics  of  the  ore. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
COMPOSITION  AND  CONCENTRATION  OF  IRON  ORES 

In  an  earlier  chapter  it  was  stated  that  certain  definite  minerals 
form  our  chief  ores  of  iron,  and  that  theoretically  these  different 
minerals  have  certain  definite  chemical  compositions.  In  the 
present  chapter  we  must  consider  how  far  these  theoretical  con- 
clusions are  qualified  in  actual  practice,  for  it  will  be  found  that 
iron  ores,  as  mined,  always  contain  impurities.  Often,  in  fact, 
the  amount  of  waste  matter  contained  is  so  great,  or  of  so  in- 
jurious a  type,  that  for  industrial  purposes  it  is  necessary  to 
lessen  or  remove  it  by  concentration  before  the  ore  can  be  profit- 
ably used  in  the  blast  furnace.  Attention  must  therefore  be 
turned  to  the  natural  impurities  which  accompany  iron  ores,  to 
the  degree  to  which  these  impurities  may  be  economically  lessened 
or  removed,  and  to  the  general  methods  of  concentration  which 
are  available  for  such  removal. 

THE  IMPURITIES  OF  IRON  ORES 

In  Chapter  III  the  iron  minerals  available  for  use  as  ores  have 
been  considered  from  the  mineralogical  stand-point  solely,  as 
pure  minerals,  and  no  attention  has  been  paid  to  the  impurities 
which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  always  accompany  them.  In  the 
present  section  these  accompanying  impurities  will  be  discussed 
in  the  detail  which  is  demanded  by  their  industrial  importance. 

The  Universal  Presence  of  Impurities. — Wherever  iron  ore  is 
mined  on  a  commercial  scale,  the  product  of  the  mine  invariably 
contains  various  impurities.  The  presence  of  some  of  these  will 
be  obvious  enough  on  simple  inspection,  while  others  will  require 
more  ^or  less  careful  chemical  analysis  for  determination  of  their 
presence  and  amount. 

In  most  cases  a  portion  at  least  of  the  impurities  in  the  mined 
ore  are  removed  before  the  ore  reaches  the  furnace,  but  even  then 
the  amount  remaining  is  notable.  The  ordinary  range  of  ores, 
as  charged  to-day  to  the  furnaces  in  different  parts  of  the  United 

152 


COMPOSITION  OF  IRON  ORES  153 

States,  may  be  from  90  to  50  percent  in  iron  oxide  and  the 
average  is  now  close  to  70  percent.  In  other  words,  our  ores 
normally  carry  into  the  furnace,  in  addition  to  their  metallic 
iron  and  the  oxygen  combined  with  it,  from  10  to  50  percent  of 
waste  matter.  Under  these  conditions  it  is  therefore  evident  that 
a  close  study  of  the  impurities  in  iron  ore  is  of  importance  not 
only  to  the  miner  but  to  the  furnaceman. 

Sources  of  the  Impurities. — So  far  as  their  source  or  origin  is 
concerned,  the  impurities  commonly  present  in  iron  ores  may  be 
conveniently  grouped  in  three  classes,  according  as  they  are  (1) 
derived  from  the  gangue  or  country-rock,  or  (2)  are  derived  from 
minerals  intimately  associated  with  the  iron  mineral,  or  (3)  are 
essential  constituents  of  the  iron  mineral  itself.  In  the  last  case, 
the  propriety  of  the  use  of  the  term  " impurity"  is  of  course 
doubtful,  but  it  is  convenient  to  cover  such  instances  as  the 
carbon  dioxide  of  iron  carbonates  and  the  combined  water  of 
brown  ores,  both  of  which  are  removable  by  simple  treatment. 

From  the  furnaceman's  point  of  view,  all  of  the  above  classes 
are  equally  impurities,  if  present  in  the  ore  supplied  to  him.  The 
chief  practical  reason  for  separating  them  into  the  three  groups 
above  named  is  the  fact  that  the  ease  with  which  the  ore  may  be 
freed  from  any  given  impurity  depends  largely  upon  the  group  in 
which  the  impurity  falls. 

Character  of  the  Impurities. — It  is  of  course  entirely  conceivable 
that  any  chemical  element  might  appear  as  an  impurity  in  iron 
ore.  In  practice,  however,  it  is  found  that  certain  elements 
and  compounds  do  appear  with  considerable  frequency,  while 
others  are  so  rare  as  iron-ore  impurities  that  they  maybe  neglected 
both  in  analysis  and  in  discussion. 

There  are,  in  fact,  some  fifteen  or  twenty  foreign  constituents 
which  do  appear  in  commercial  iron  ores  with  sufficient  frequency 
to  be  worth  considering  here.  Of  these,  some  are  almost  uni- 
versally present  in  considerable  quantity,  while  others  are  dis- 
tinctly rarer  but  are  still  common  enough,  or  important  enough 
in  their  effects,  to  require  consideration. 

For  example,  any  iron  ore,  even  of  high  grade,  will  usually 
contain  appreciable  percentages  of  moisture,  silica  and  alumina. 
Iron  ores  of  certain  types  may  also  contain  rather  large  amounts 
of  combined  water,  carbon  dioxide,  organic  matter  or  lime.  Almost 
any  ore  will  contain  smaller,  but  appreciable,  percentages  of 


154  IRON  ORES 

sulphur,  phosphorus,  manganese,  titanium,  magnesia,  potash 
and  soda.  Certain  ores  may  carry  notable  amounts  of  copper, 
chromium  and  nickel. 

For  convenience  in  discussing  the  character  and  effect  of  these 
impurities  it  will  be  best  to  group  them  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring 
together  those  which  are  nearly  related.  The  following  grouping 
is  imperfect,  but  satisfactory  enough  for  our  present  purposes : 

Metallic — Manganese,  titanium,  chromium,  nickel,  copper. 

Alkaline — Lime,  magnesia,  potash,  soda. 

Acid — Silica,  alumina. 

Volatile — Water,  carbon  dioxide,  organic  matter. 

Special — Phosphorus,  sulphur. 

The  groups  above  noted  can  now  be  briefly  described  in  the 
order  named. 

Metallic  Impurities. — Of  the  metallic  impurities,  manganese  is 
almost  universally  present  in  iron  ores.  In  more  than  trifling 
percentages,  however,  it  is  probably  associated  most  frequently 
with  the  brown  ores.  The  other  four  metallic  impurities- 
titanium,  chromium,  nickel,  and  copper — are  in  general  asso- 
ciated with  the  magnetites  and  specular  hematites,  rather  than 
with  the  brown  ores  or  carbonates.  This,  however,  is  due  chiefly 
to  the  different  methods  by  which  these  two  types  of  ore  have 
commonly  originated;  so  that  in  rarer  but  still  notable  cases 
we  may  find  brown  ores  high  in  chromium  and  nickel,  and 
magnetites  or  hematites  high  in  manganese. 

Alkaline  Impurities.-^- With  regard  to  lime,  magnesia,  potash, 
and  soda,  which  have  here  been  grouped  as  alkaline  impurities, 
three  different  sets  of  associations  with  iron  ores  are  found,  ac- 
cording to  the  origin  of  the  ores.  In  the  Clinton  hematites,  for 
example,  high  percentages  of  lime  and  lesser  amounts  of  mag- 
nesia occur  as  part  of  the  calcareous  matter  which  forms  a  normal 
portion  of  the  ore.  In  the  brown  ores  the  four  alkaline  impurities 
are  present  usually  in  small  percentages  as  ingredients  of  the 
clay  commonly  associated  with  the  ore,  though  at  times  lime 
and  magnesia  will  be  present  in  undissolved  fragments  of  lime- 
stone. In  ores  associated  with  igneous  or  metamorphic  rocks, 
as  the  magnetites  and  massive  hematites  usually  are,  all  of  the 
alkaline  impurities  are  frequent,  and  in  this  case  they  are  usually 
traceable  to  the  rock  which  encloses  the  ore-body. 


COMPOSITION  OF  IRON  ORES  155 

Acid  Impurities. — Silica  and  alumina  are  invariably  present 
in  iron  ores,  whatever  the  kind,  grade,  or  origin  of  the  ore  may 
be.  In  the  brown  ores,  the  Clinton  ores,  and  the  carbonates, 
the  silica  and  alumina  which  are  present  ordinarily  represent  the 
essential  constituents  of  clay.  In  the  magnetites,  hematites, 
and  other  "ores  when  associated  with  igneous  or  metamorphic 
rock,  the  silica  and  alumina  are  normally  present  as  constituents 
of  quartz,  feldspar,  hornblende,  or  other  silicate  minerals. 

Volatile  Impurities. — Of  the  volatile  matters  which  are  found 
in  iron  ores,  water  is  present  in  two  forms.  In  all  ores  it  occurs 
as  simple  moisture,  mechanically  held  by  the  fragments  of  ore. 
In  the  brown  ores,  or  hydrated  iron  oxides,  combined  water  is 
also  present,  as  an  essential  constituent  of  the  iron  mineral. 

Carbon  dioxide  is,  of  course,  an  invariable  and  essential  con- 
stituent of  the  carbonate  ores.  It  is  rarely  found  in  any  of  the 
other  types  of  iron  ore,  except  in  the  Clinton  and  other  oolitic 
ores.  This  exception,  however,  is  one  of  great  importance 
owing  to  the  scale  on  which  these  ores  are  now  worked  in  New- 
foundland, Lorraine  and  the  United  States.  It  may  therefore 
be  pointed  out  that  the  carbon  dioxide  reported  in  analyses  of 
Clinton  ores  is  combined  with  the  lime,  and  not  with  the  iron 
of  the  ore,  and  that  this  is  also  true  of  part  of  the  Lorraine  ores. 

Organic  matter  is  a  frequent  impurity  of  the  carbonate  ores,  par- 
ticularly where  these  ores  are  associated  with  coal  beds  or  with 
carbonaceous  shales.  It  is  rarely  found  in  any  of  the  other  types 
of  iron  ore,  except  occasionally  in  some  of  the  more  porous  brown 
ores,  such  as  those  which  have  originated  as  bog  or  spring  ores. 

Special  Impurities. — Phosphorus  and  sulphur  require  special 
mention  among  the  impurities  found  in  iron  ores.  This  is  not 
because  of  the  quantity  in  which  they  occur,  for  it  is  but  rarely 
that  more  than  very  small  percentages  are  present  in  any  ore. 
Their  importance  is  due  entirely  to  the  injurious  effect  which 
they  have  on  the  iron  and  steel  made  from  the  ore,  and  to  the 
difficulty  or  impossibility  of  entirely  freeing  the  ore  from  their 
presence. 

Distribution  of  Impurities  in  Typical  Ores. — The  manner  in 
which  the  different  impurities  which  have  been  above  noted  are 
associated  with  the  different  classes  of  iron  ores  can  be  best 
exemplified  by  a  series  of  complete  analyses  of  typical  ores.  The 
following  table  contains  analyses  which  are  fairly  representative 


156 


IRON  ORES 


in  this  respect.  Of  the  analyses  presented,  numbers  1,  2,  3,  5 
and  6  are  quoted  from  Vol.  X,  Reports  Tenth  Census,  so  that  they 
are  entirely  comparable  throughout,  both  as  to  methods  of 
sampling  and  as  to  analytical  methods.  As  this  volume  contains 
no  complete  analysis  of  a  hard  Clinton  ore,  analysis  No.  4  has 
been  added  from  another  source. 

ANALYSES  OF  TYPICAL  IRON  ORES 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

Metallic  iron  

49.66 

62.65 

53.60 

38.71 

50.04 

38.75 

Manganese  oxide  
Titanium 

0.04 

0.25 

0.23 

0.22 

n.  d. 

0.99 

Chromium 

Nickel.... 

Lime  
Magnesia  

1.19 
16.33 

0.26 
1.58 

2.23 
0.52 

10.51 
n.  d. 

0.25 
0.25 

5.65 
2.40 

Potash  
Soda.  .  . 

0.12 
0  22 

0.38 
n.  d. 

0.17 
0  01 

n.  d. 
n.  d. 

0.14 
0.11 

n.  d. 
n.  d. 

Silica  
Alumina 

10.81 
1  11 

4.42 
2  37 

10.52 

45  58 

19.34 
3  39 

11.23 
4  99 

2.92 
0  53 

Carbon  dioxide 

0  28 

0  12 

0  09 

8.26 

0.13 

36.11 

Organic  matter  
Combined  water  
Moisture 

0.01 

0.89 
0  16 

0.01 
1.12 
0  19 

0.04 
1.69 
1  02 

n.  d. 
n.  d. 
0  601 

0.25 
10.20 
0.42 

1  0.71 

Phosphorus  . 

0  007 

0  018 

0  641 

0.35 

0.108 

0.121 

Sulphur 

0  538 

0  Oil 

0  085 

0  04 

0  179 

0  262 

Analysis  No.  1.  Magnetite.     Tilly  Foster,  New  York. 

2.  Hematite.     Chapin,  Michigan. 

3.  Clinton  hematite,  soft.     Attalla,  Alabama. 

4.  Clinton  hematite,  hard.     Birmingham,   Ala- 

bama. 

5.  Brown  ore.     Tecumseh,  Alabama. 

"  6.  Carbonate  ore.     Clarion  County,  Penna. 

All  the  analyses  are  of  specially  good  ores,  of  their  respective 
classes.  Poorer  ores  would  of  course  show  still  higher  percentage 
of  impurities,  but  of  essentially  the  same  kind. 

1  Calculated. 


COMPOSITION  OF  IRON  ORES  157 

From  the  preceding  discussion  it  must  be  obvious  that  ores, 
as  mined,  are  far  from  being  the  pure  minerals  considered  by 
the  mineralogist.  Attention  must  now  be  paid  to  the  economic 
effects  of  these  impurities,  and  to  the  methods  which  may  be 
employed  to  reduce  them. 

CONCENTRATION 

At  present  most  of  the  Lake  Superior  ores,  and  all  of  the 
Birmingham  district  red  ores,  are  shipped  to  the  furnaces  as 
mined,  without  any  concentration  or  treatment.  On  the  other 
hand,  practically  all  of  our  magnetic  ores  and  brown  ores  are 
concentrated  before  being  sent  to  the  furnace.  Concentration 
methods  are  adapted  either  to  save  freight  or  nonessential  in- 
gredients of  the  ores,  or  to  remove  injurious  impurities.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  both  reasons  are  frequently  operative  in  the 
same  instances. 

The  term  concentration,  as  here  used,  is  intended  to  cover  all 
methods  of  raising  the  grade  of  iron  ores,  or  of  lessening  their  im- 
purities, prior  to  their  use  in  the  blast  furnace.  It  is  obvious, 
of  course,  that  the  decrease  or  entire  removal  of  any  impurity 
will  necessarily  raise  the  grade  of  the  ore  that  is  left,  so  that  there 
is  no  real  reason  for  drawing  a  fine  distinction  between  the  two 
aims  of  concentration.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  we  always 
do  make  such  a  distinction,  mentally  at  least,  between  them. 
When  an  ore  is  treated  for  the  purpose  of  getting  rid  of  a  rela- 
tively large  amount  of  water,  sand,  clay  or  gangue-rock  the  natu- 
ral thing  is  to  fix  the  mind  on  the  raise  in  grade  which  results. 
When,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  treated  in  order  to  remove  or 
lessen  an  already  small  amount  of  an  active  impurity  like  sul- 
phur or  phosphorus,  the  concentration  is  thought  of  as  an  attempt 
to  lower  impurities. 

The  methods  which  may  be  used  for  these  purposes  depend,  of 
course,  on  both  the  character  of  the  ore  and  the  character  of  the 
impurities  to  be  removed.  As  noted  in  an  earlier  section  of  this 
chapter,  the  impurities  which  may  be  associated  with  an  iron 
ore  differ  in  their  origin,  in  their  relations  to  the  ore  itself,  and  in 
their  own  chemical  and  physical  characteristics.  All  of  these 
factors  must  be  taken  into  account  when  concentrating  methods 
are  under  consideration.  For  our  present  purposes  a  very  con- 
venient classification  is  that  following': 


158  IRON  ORES 

1.  Volatile  impurities,  due  to  the  physical  or  chemical  in- 
clusion  of   volatile   compounds.     Includes   ordinary   moisture, 
combined  water  (in  brown  ores),  organic  matter,  carbon  dioxide 
(in  carbonate  ores),  etc.     Sulphur  and  zinc,  when  present,  are 
also  volatilizable,  though  less  readily  and  completely  than  water 
and  the  carbon  compounds. 

2.  Gangue  impurities,  due  to  inclusion  of  portions  of  the  asso- 
ciated or  country  rock.     Includes  silica,  alumina,  lime,  magnesia 
and  alkalies  present;  sulphur  when  present  as  visible  crystals  of 
pyrite;  phosphorus  when  present  as  visible  crystals  of  apatite 
(lime  phosphate). 

3.  Intimate  impurities,  due  to  impurities  in  the  iron  mineral 
itself,  or  to  the  presence  in  the  ore  of  minute  particles  of  gangue 
material.     Includes  usually  all  of  the  titanium  and  chromium 
that  may  be  present;  often  much  of  the  sulphur;  and  usually  most 
of  the  phosphorus. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  classification  above  used  gives  some  clue 
as  to  the  methods  which  may  be  adopted  for  the  removal  of  the 
various  impurities.  The  volatile  impurities  may  obviously  be 
removed  or  lessened  by  heating  the  ore.  In  this  case  the  proc- 
ess is  often  named  specifically,  according  to  the  chief  object  of 
removal,  as 

Drying,  to  remove  water. 
Roasting,  to  remove  sulphur. 
Calcining,  to  remove  carbon  dioxide. 

The  second  class  of  impurities — those  derived  from  the  gangue 
or  country  rock,  are  removable  by  physical  methods,  because  in 
this  case  the  ore  and  the  impurity  usually  differ  greatly  in  physical 
characteristics,  and  are  physically  separable.  In  carrying  out 
this  separation,  we  may  depend  on  differences  in  size,  in  gravity, 
or  in  magnetic  force.  In  some  brown-ore  deposits,  where  lumps 
of  ore  are  mixed  in  with  clay  or  fine  sand,  the  ore  lumps  can  be 
separated  effectively  by  screens  or  by  plain  log  washers.  When 
the  difference  in  size  is  not  so  great,  or  where  ore  and  impurity  are 
so  intimately  associated  that  preliminary  crushing  is  necessary, 
jigs  or  tables  have  to  be  added  to  the  washer  to  secure  effective 
concentration.  Finally,  in  the  case  of  the  magnetite  ores,  it  is 
possible  to  separate  the  magnetic  ore  from  the  non-magnetic 
impurity  by  magnetic  concentration. 


COMPOSITION  OF  IRON  ORES  159 

The  third  class  of  impurities  named,  those  in  which  the  iron  and 
the  impurity  are  intimately  associated  in  the  ore  itself,  are 
practically  unremovable  in  ordinary  commercial  practice;  and 
the  possibility  can  only  be  considered  when  justified  by  excep- 
tional circumstances. 

Of  course,  whenever  concentration  is  necessary,  it  makes  am 
additional  cost  which  must  be  charged  against  the  ore.  This 
must  be  justified  by  compensating  decreases  in  freight  and 
handling  costs,  by  increased  furnace  efficiency,  or  by  improve- 
ment in  grade  of  metal  produced. 

The  following  data  on  the  specific  gravity  of  various  iron  ores, 
and  of  the  minerals  and  rocks  most  likely  to  be  associated  with 
them,  will  be  of  service  in  determining  the  feasibility  of  methods 
of  gravity  concentration. 

Magnetite  5 . 2  maximum  Slates  2.7  to  2.9  range 

Hematite  5 . 2  maximum  Granites  2 . 66  average 

Brown  ore  4 . 8  maximum  Traps  2 . 7  to  3.1  range 

Iron  carbonate  3 . 9  maximum  Quartz  2 . 5  to  2.8  range 

Shales  2 . 4  average  Calcite  2 . 5  to  2 . 8  range 

Sandstones  2 . 0  to  2 . 7  range  Apatite  3 . 18  to  3 . 25  range 

Clays  1 . 9  average.  Pyrite  4 . 8  to  5 . 2  range 

Limestones  2 . 3  to  2 . 9  range 

Actual  Importance  of  Concentration. — The  subject  of  ore 
concentration  is  so  interesting  theoretically,  and  so  intensely 
important  to  a  few  ore  fields  whose  grade  is  close  to  the  com- 
mercial margin  of  profit,  that  we  are  apt  to  overestimate  its 
actual  importance  in  the  world's  trade.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
concentrated  ores  are  not  an  important  factor  to-day  in  the  iron 
industry,  and  except  m  certain  areas  it  will  be  many  decades  before 
they  become  the  leading  source  of  supply. 

It  may  be  well  to  substantiate  these  statements  by  sum- 
maries of  actual  conditions  in  the  more  important  ore  fields  of  the 
world. 

Lake  Superior  District. — The  sandy  ores  of  the  western  portion 
of  the  Mesabi  range  are  now  being  washed  to  decrease  silica  and 
raise  the  iron  percentage;  the  Atitokan  ores  of  Canada  are  roasted 
to  lower  sulphur;  and  a  few  mines  have  recently  begun  to  dry  their 
ores  to  lower  moisture  and  save  on  freight.  Of  these  three 
treatments,  •  the  last  may  increase  to  some  extent;  and  the  per- 
centage of  washed  ore  may  hold  its  own  under  normal  conditions,  or 


160  IRON  ORES 

increase  heavily  if  the  demands  upon  the  Lake  Superior  region 
become  much  greater. 

Lorraine-Luxemburg  District. — In  this,  the  second  most 
important  ore  producing  district  of  the  world,  no  concentration 
of  any  type  is  practised;  and  none  appears  to  be  practicable. 

Birmingham  District. — The  red  ores  of  the  Birmingham  district 
are  not  concentrated  in  any  way.  Unless  ore  requirements  in- 
crease enormously,  the  chances  of  any  serious  concentrating 
practice  are  poor. 

Southern  U.  S.  Brown  Ores. — Occurring  in  clays  and  sands,  these 
are  usually  washed  in  log  washers,  and  often  crushed  and  jigged. 
In  various  brown-ore  districts  the  crude  mined  product  may  carry 
from  5  to  20  percent  metallic  iron;  by  concentration  this  is  usually 
brought  up  to  a  "  washed  ore"  grading  45  to  50  percent  iron. 

Carbonate  Ores,  Great  Britain. — Of  the  two  general  types  of 
carbonate  ores  used  in  various  British  districts,  the  nodular  ores 
are  hand-picked  at  mouth  of  mine.  All  carbonates  are  roasted 
in  kilns  to  remove  water,  organic  matter  and  carbon  dioxide. 

Magnetites,  New  York  and  New  Jersey. — As  the  supply  of  avail- 
able high-grade  lump  ore  is  small,  magnetic  concentration  is  prac- 
tised at  almost  every  mine.  When  the  magnetite  is  granular, 
ores  carrying  as  low  as  22  percent  metallic  iron  can  be  concen- 
trated economically;  with  platey  magnetites,  the  fine  crushing 
necessary  renders  concentration  almost  valueless.  The  ordinary 
grade  of  concentrating  ore  ranges  from  30  to  35  percent  iron, 
crude;  it  is  carried  up  to  55  to  63  percent  iron  in  the  concen- 
trate. Sulphur,  phosphorus  and  titanium  are  often  decreased 
incidentally. 

Spanish  Hematites. — Except  for  hand  picking  of  some  ores,  and 
fairly  close  grading  at  the  mine,  no  concentration  is  practised. 

Magnetites  of  Pennsylvania.- — Mostly  from  contact  deposits 
of  the  Cornwall  type,  the  Pennsylvania  magnetites  are  normally 
high  in  sulphur,  and  are  roasted  or  sintered  to  decrease  this 
constituent. 

Wabana  Hematite,  Newfoundland. — Ore  as  mined  grades  48  to 
50  percent  iron;  and  most  of  the  shipments  to  Sydney  are 
crude  ore  of  this  grade.  Perhaps  half  the  total  output  is  picked, 
on  a  belt,  at  the  mine,  grade  being  raised  to  51  to  53  percent 
metallic  iron. 

Cuban  Brown  Ores. — The  brown  ores  of  the  Santiago  district  are 


COMPOSITION  OF  IRON  ORES  161 

low  grade  and  very  high  in  water.  To  improve  grade  and 
physical  character  they  are  sintered  before  shipment. 

Pacific  Coast  Ores. — The  hematites  and  magnetites  along  and 
near  the  Pacific  Coast  of  both  North  and  South  America  are 
mostly  from  contact  deposits.  They  are  commonly  high-grade 
lump  ores  at  the  surface;  but  frequently  sulphur  increases  in 
lower  levels  so  as  to  require  roasting. 

Brazilian  Hematites. — Not  shipping  yet,  but  sufficient  supply 
of  high-grade  lump  is  known  to  exist,  and  concentration  will  be 
unnecessary. 

Scandinavian  Magnetites. — Some  of  the  Swedish  fields  still  have 
large  tonnages  of  high-grade  lump  ore  available.  But  on  the 
average  magnetic  concentration  is  becoming  steadily  more  of  a 
factor. 


11 


CHAPTER  XIV 
PRICES,  PROFITS  AND  MARKETS 

The  chapters  immediately  preceding  have  dealt  with  the  costs 
at  which  ore  may  be  produced.  The  question  which  remains  to 
be  considered  relates  to  the  price  at  which  it  will  probably  be  sold. 
In  spite  of  all  the  publicity  which  has  been  given  to  this  subject 
recently,  there  seem  to  be  certain  general  principles  which  have 
not  been  adequately  discussed.  For  some  years  past  one  par- 
ticular phase  of  the  subject — the  proper  relation  between  Lake 
and  Birmingham  ore  values — has  been  of  really  serious  interest; 
and  one  has  but  to  recall  the  hopeless  muddle  in  which  geolo- 
gists, engineers,  metallurgists  and  lawyers  succeeded  in  involv- 
ing this  question,  in  order  to  realize  that  there  is  still  room  for 
discussion  of  the  elements  of  price-fixing. 

COSTS  AND  PRICES 

The  cost  of  an  ore,  delivered  at  any  given  furnace,  is  made  up 
of  a  number  of  elements  some  of  which  are  frequently  overlooked 
or  slighted.  On  the  other  hand,  the  price  which  can  be  re- 
alized for  an  ore  is  not  entirely  a  matter  of  chance  or  of  individ- 
ual preference,  as  might  be  supposed  from  examination  of  current 
literature  on  the  subject.  It  is  fixed  within  certain  definite  limits, 
and  even  its  variations  withn  these  limits  are  determined  by 
conditions  which  can  be  at  least  stated,  even  if  they  can  not 
be  accurately  evaluated  in  advance.  The  present  section  will 
deal  briefly  with  these  two  phases  of  ore  valuation — the  elements 
entering  into  costs,  and  the  larger  factors  which  limit  prices. 

Factors  Included  in  Total  Costs. — Part  of  the  difficulty  has  arisen 
because  of  differences  in  selling  practice  in  different  regions.  To 
understand  this,  it  will  be  best  to  examine  the  elements  which  go 
to  makeup  the  cost  and  the  price  of  iron  ore  at  various  stages  in  its 
journey,  from  the  time  it  simply  lies  unworked  in  the  ground 
until  the  time  it  is  converted  into  merchantable  metal. 

The  following  schedule  summarizes  these  factors  in  their 
normal  order. 

162 


PRICES,  PROFITS  AND  MARKETS  163 

• 

FACTORS  IN  ORE  COSTS 

a.  Original  cost  per  ton  of  ore  in  the  ground 

b.  Accumulated  interest  per  ton  to  date  of  shipment 

c.  Actual  cost  of  ore  to  owner 

d.  Profit  on  ore  land  investment 


e.  Value  of  ore  to  owner,  or  royalty  value 

f.  Cost  of  mining 

g.  Profit  on  investment  in  mining  plant,  capital,  etc 


h.    Selling  price  of  ore  at  mouth  of  mine  ...................... 

i.     Cost  of  transporting  ore  to  furnace  ........................ 

j.     Profit  on  investment  in  transportation  properties  ............ 

k.    Selling  price  of  ore  at  furnace  ............................ 

1.     Profit  per  ton  of  ore  to  be  made  by  converting  into  pig  ....... 

m.  Actual  value  of  ore,  per  ton,  to  the  furnace  ................. 

It  will  be  seen  that  there  are  at  least  six  methods  in  which  cost 
or  value  of  ore  could  be  stated.  Of  these,  the  forms  lettered  a,  e, 
h  and  k  are  used  quite  commonly. 

Absolute  Price  Limits.  —  It  will  be  convenient,  before  going 
further  with  the  subject,  to  fix  upon  the  absolute  minimum  and 
maximum  prices  which  can  be  reached  by  iron  ores  sold  in  an  open 
market. 

The  minimum  price  at  which  an  ore  can  be  sold,  provided  the 
mining  company  expects  to  remain  in  the  business,  will  be  reached 
during  periods  of  extreme  business  depression.  It  will  be  close 
to  the  actual  cash  costs  of  mining,  forgetting  or  putting  aside 
such  items  as  depreciation  which  though  proper  are  not  pressing. 

The  maximum  price  that  can  be  realized  will  be  secured  during 
some  period  of  business  prosperity,  and  usually  near  the  close 
of  such  period.  It  will  be  made  when  an  independent  furnace 
company,  in  order  to  deliver  iron,  buys  ore  at  a  price  which  does 
not  allow  for  a  proper  conversion  profit. 

It  is  of  course  obvious  that  such  prices,  both  minimum  and 
maximum,  are  abnormal,  in  the  sense  that  they  can  not  be  long 
continued  and  that  they  can  not  affect  very  large  proportions  of 
the  total  tonnage.  Nevertheless,  in  every  season  of  acute  de- 
pression or  wild  expansion,  we  will  find  that  certain  contracts 
have  come  pretty  close  to  these  theoretical  limits. 

The  preceding  fixing  of  absolute  limits  has  this  advantage, 
that  it  enables  us  to  place  limits  of  price  per  unit  of  metallic  iron 


164  IRON  ORES 

in  the  ore.  For  example,  we  know  from  the  data  given  in  Chapter 
XI  that  a  number  of  very  important  districts  can  mine  ore  at  a 
sheer  cost  of  two  to  three  cents  per  unit  of  contained  iron;  and  we 
may  therefore  take  some  such  figure  as  this  for  the  lowest  price 
at  which  ore  could  be  sold  in  any  large  market.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  rough  calculation  of  possible  furnace  profits  at  different 
prices  of  pig  and  ore  will  show  that  we  might  set  our  absolute 
maximum  price  for  ore  at  something  like  ten  cents  per  unit  of 
iron.  A  furnace  paying  over*  this  price  could  not  make  money 
even  during  a  boom  year  in  a  high-priced  district. 

Unless  new  cheaply  mined  and  well  located  ore  fields  are  dis- 
covered, we  may  therefore  assume  that  no  large  tonnage  of  ore 
can  be  sold  under  two  and  one-half  cents  per  unit  or  thereabouts. 
At  the  other  extreme,  unless  the  world  becomes  accustomed 
to  paying  a  good  deal  more  for  its  pig  iron  and  steel,  no  large  ton- 
nage of  ore  can  ever  bring  over  ten  cents  a  unit.  Later  study  of 
actual  ore  prices  will  show  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  bulk  of 
the  ore  tonnage  sold  in  open  markets  anywhere  in  the  world 
ranges  in  price  between  perhaps  four  and  one-half  and  eight  and 
one-half  cents  per  unit.  The  average  of  these  two  figures  is  six 
and  one-half  cents  per  unit;  while  the  average  we  would  have 
deduced  on  a  purely  theoretical  basis  would  have  been  six  and 
one-fourth  cents  per  unit. 

The  average  price  realized  for  ore  must  necessarily  fall  some- 
where between  the  minimum  and  maximum  possibilities  out- 
lined above.  Since  the  furnace  company  is  commonly  in  a 
stronger  industrial  and  financial  position  than  the  mining  com- 
pany, the  average  will  probably  be  closer  to  the  possible  minimum 
than  to  the  possible  maximum.  But,  over  a  long  series  of  years, 
it  must  be  sufficiently  high  to  allow  for  a  reasonable  rate  of  profit 
to  the  miner,  on  all  the  capital  employed  in  his  business,  after  de- 
ducting all  proper  costs  and  charges.  In  this  connection  a  rea- 
sonable rate  of  profit  does  not  mean  4  or  5  or  6  percent,  for  no  one 
would  take  up  mining  unless  the  average  rate  of  profit  yielded 
were  at  least  equal  to  that  which  could  be  secured  from  other 
enterprises  of  equal  financial  hazard. 

Effect  of  Metallurgic  Value. — If  we  confine  our  attention  to  one 
given  ore  district,  supplying  one  given  furnace  region,  it  will  be 
substantially  accurate  to  say  that  the  metallurgic  value  of  the 
different  ores  determines  their  relative  price.  That  is  to  say, 


PRICES,  PROFITS  AND  MARKETS  165 

of  two  Lake  ores  delivered  at  Pittsburgh  the  relative  prices  will 
be  determined  by  such  matters  as  percentage  of  metallic  iron, 
phospKbrus  content,  and  physical  structure.  This  fact  is  well 
understood,  and  in  Chapter  XII  there  has  been  some  discussion 
of  the  way  in  which  these  different  chemical  and  physical  factors 
influence  values  through  their  different  effects  in  blast-furnace 
and  steel-mill  practice. 

Unfortunately,  starting  from  this  perfectly  sound  assumption 
that  within  a  given  furnace  district  metallurgic  values  determine 
relative  prices,  we  have  had  to  deal  with  very  erroneous  lines  of 
reasoning.  It  has  been  assumed,  for  example,  that  it  should  be 
possible  to  compare  two  different  districts,  and  to  determine 
from  comparison  of  the  metallurgic  values  of  their  ores  what  the 
prices  of  those  ores  should  be.  This  is  an  utterly  unsound  idea, 
as  can  be  seen  when  the  matter  is  studied  in  a  general  way,  with- 
out introducing  the  words  Pittsburgh  and  Birmingham  into  the 
discussion  at  too  early  a  stage. 

In  the  sections  immediately  preceding  we  have  seen  that  ore 
prices,  within  a  certain  market  area,  are  limited  in  two  directions. 
They  can  not  regularly  fall  below  the  actual  cost  of  the  ores,  plus 
a  reasonable  profit  on  all  the  operations  involved  in  getting  the 
ores  to  the  furnace.  They  can  not,  on  the  other  hand,  rise  above 
the  point  at  which  the  furnaces  make  little  or  no  profit  by  using 
them.  The  matter  of  metallurgic  value,  it  will  be  seen,  enters 
only  very  indirectly  into  the  question. 

DIVISION  OF  THE  PROFITS 

The  total  profit  derived  from  the  mining  and  use  of  a  ton  of 
ore  is  divided  between  several  parties  who  have  taken  part  in 
the  process — the  land  owner,  the  miner,  the  transportation  com- 
pany, and  the  furnace.  Some  attention  must  therefore  be  given 
to  the  manner  in  which  this  division  of  profits  takes  place,  and 
to  the  factors  which  determine  what  share  should  go  to  each  of 
the  parties  in  interest. 

The  Parties  in  Interest. — A  ton  of  ore,  carrying  let  us  assume 
50  percent  metallic  iron,  will  ultimately  be  converted  into  close 
to  half  a  ton  of  pig  iron,  worth  perhaps  seven  dollars.  On  this 
basis  the  iron  in  the  ore  has  a  gross  ultimate  value  of  fourteen 
cents  per  unit.  But  at  first  glance  it  is  obvious  that  this  value 
is  the  result  of  a  long  series  of  operations,  and  that  a  number  of 
items  of  cost  may  be  deducted  before  we  can  arrive  at  any  idea  of 
profit  or  net  value.  Finally,  it  is  probable  that  these  operations 


166  IRON  ORES 

have  been  carried  on  by  separate  business  interests,  so  that  the 
net  profit  will  be  divided  among  several  claimants. 

Reduced  to  its  simplest  form,  we  may  consider  that  four  dif- 
ferent interests  are  involved  in  the  matter.  One  party  owns  ore 
land  which  originally  cost  something,  and  which  has  accumulated 
carrying  charges  in  the  course  of  years.  In  addition,  this  land 
owner  will  naturally  expect  a  profit  on  his  part  of  the  transaction. 
This  portion  of  the  total  profit  it  is  convenient  to  distinguish  as 
Royalty,  in  whatever  form  it  may  be  paid. 

The  second  party  to  the  transaction  is  the  mining  company. 
This  contributes  an  investment  in  mining  equipment  and  working 
capital,  and  expects  a  profit  above  all  costs. 

The  third  party  handles  the  transportation  of  the  ore  from  mine 
to  furnace.  It  also  uses  equipment  and  capital,  and  expects 
profits. 

Finally,  the  furnace  takes  the  ore  at  a  price,  and  converts  it 
into  pig  iron.  Sold  in  this  form,  or  in  more  highly  finished  con- 
dition, it  may  be  assumed  to  have  reached  an  ultimate  consumer. 
The  furnace  company,  of  course,  also  has  used  money  and  plant, 
on  which  profits  are  expected. 

If  the  ore  trade  is  to  be  on  a  normal  basis,  each  of  the  four 
parties  interested  in  the  series  of  transactions  must,  on  the  aver- 
age, make  fair  business  profits.  This  must  be  taken  for  granted, 
but  in  discussing  the  division  of  the  total  profits  we  may  for 
our  present  purpose,  disregard  the  transportation  company  as 
a  factor  in  the  matter.  Under  ordinary  conditions,  we  may 
assume  that  transportation  charges  will  be  fixed  at  such  rates 
as  will  move  the  traffic,  and  that  they  will  not  fluctuate  with  ore 
or  iron  values.  The  transportation  company  does  not,  therefore, 
have  the  same  direct  interest  in  the  question  of  values  as  have 
the  land  owner,  the  miner  and  the  furnaceman. 

Smelting  or  Furnace  Profits. — Of  the  total  profits  derived  from 
the  mining  and  smelting  of  iron  ore,  the  lion's  share  will  usually 
go  to  the  account  of  the  furnace  and  mill.  This  is  a  commercial 
necessity,  under  present  conditions,  and  arises  from  the  greater 
financial  strength  of  the  smelting  companies.  It  is  true  that  they 
have  heavier  fixed  investments  per  ton  of  product  than  do  any 
of  the  mining  companies,  and  even  when  mine  and  furnace  re- 
ceive the  same  rate  of  profit  on  their  investment  the  greater 
share,  expressed  in  cents  or  dollars  per  ton,  would  be  due  to  the 


PRICES,  PROFITS  AND  MARKETS  167 

furnace.  But  it  is  probable,  though  it  would  be  difficult  to  prove 
decisively,  that  the  furnaces  yield  on  the  average  a  larger  rate 
of  profit  than  do  the  mines. 

The  gradual  exhaustion  of  old  sources  of  ore  supply  will  tend 
to  raise  the  prices  paid  for  ore  in  any  given  furnace  district;  and 
the  same  tendency  will  be  shown  if  commercial  conditions  lead 
to  marked  increase  in  smelting  capacity.  On  the  other  hand, 
such  tendency  to  a  rise  in  ore  prices  will  be  checked  by  the  open- 
ing up  of  new  and  important  sources  of  supply.  The  interaction 
of  these  factors  will  determine,  in  the  long  run,  what  prices  will 
be  commonly  paid  for  ore. 

Mining  Profits. — Deducting  transportation  charges,  the  money 
paid  for  ore  by  the  furnaces  is  left  to  be  divided,  in  some  way, 
between  the  miner  and  the  land  owner.  An  outline  of  certain 
factors  which  affect  mining  profits  will  be  at  least  suggestive. 

The  average  rate  of  mining  profit  in  any  given  mining  district 
is  not  affected  to  any  serious  extent  by  mining  costs.  This  may 
at  first  sight  seem  to  be  an  erroneous  conclusion,  but  it  is  clear 
enough  that,  in  a  free  market,  any  unusual  advantage  which  the 
mining  district  as  a  whole  may  possess  will,  in  the  long  run,  be 
counter-balanced  by  reduction  in  the  prices  at  which  the  ore  will 
be  sold,  or  by  a  rise  in  the  rate  of  royalty  paid  to  the  land  owner. 
Of  course  low  -costs,  as  between  mine  and  mine  in  the  same 
district,  will  affect  profits  markedly;  but  not  for  the  district  as  a 
whole. 

Other  factors  remaining  the  same,  the  mining  profits  will  be 
increased  by  either  a  rise  in  the  price  obtained  for  ore,  or  by  a  fall 
in  royalties;  and  they  will  be  decreased  by  contrary  movements 
in  these  regards.  Now,  higher  ore  prices  mean  that  the  annual 
output  is  becoming  smaller,  relative  to  the  demand.  On  the 
other  hand,  low  royalties  imply  that  there  are  large  ore  reserves 
available,  in  proportion  to  the  annual  demand  upon  them. 
It  will  therefore  be  unusual  to  find  a  district  in  which  these  two 
factors  can  operate  favorably  to  mining  profits,  at  the  same  time; 
for  normally  an  increased  demand  for  ore  will  be  met  by  increased 
draft  on  the  ore  reserves. 

Under  ordinary  conditions,  mining  profits  will  be  low  when 
there  are  extensive  ore  reserves  in  a  district,  owing  to  the  compe- 
tition of  the  numerous  separate  mining  operations  which  may  be 
expected  to  go  into  the  business.  If,  however,  there  are  financial 


168  IRON  ORES 

or  physical  difficulties  in  the  way  of  numerous  mining  operations, 
mining  profits  may  be  high  even  when  very  large  reserves  are 
available.  The  Wabana  field  may  be  cited  as  an  instance  where 
physical  difficulties  operate  to  limit  the  maximum  annual  output 
which  may  be  reached. 

Royalties. — The  term  royalty,  as  used  here,  covers  all  payments 
made  to  owner  of  the  land  or  mine,  as  distinct  from  mining 
profits. 

The  average  rate  of  royalty  for  any  given  district  is  not 
determined  to  any  large  extent,  by  the  grade  or  iron  content  of  the 
ore.  This  fact  does  not  seem  to  be  generally  understood,  for  there 
have  been  long  disquisitions  on  the  supposedly  unfair  differences 
in  royalty  or  purchase  rate,  between  the  ores  of  two  different  dis- 
tricts. Within  a  district,  on  the  contrary,  metallurgic  value  does 
obviously  and  properly  influence  royalty  rates;  for  clearly  unless 
a  high-grade  ore  has  some  unusual  mining  costs,  it  can  bear  a 
higher  royalty  rate  than  a  low-grade  ore  from  the  same  district. 

But  when  two  different  ore  districts  are  compared,  it  can  be 
seen  that  the  chief  factor  in  average  royalty  rate  is  not  metallurgic 
grade  or  value,  but  the  relative  scarcity  of  the  ore  left  in  the 
ground,  compared  with  the  annual  draft  on  the  ore  reserves  of  the 
respective  districts.  The  best  instance  of  this  has  been  quoted  in 
an  earlier  chapter  (Chapter  XI)  but  may  be  summarized  here 
for  convenient  reference.  It  is  afforded  by  comparison  of  royalty 
or  purchase  rates  in  the  southern  United  States  as  against 
similar  rates  in  the  Lake  Superior  district.  At  first  glance  it 
might  seem  that  the  wide  differences  between  the  royalties  or 
purchase  prices  of  the  two  districts  are  due  to  differences  in  grade 
of  ore.  But  further  consideration  shows  that  the  ruling  factor  is 
not  this,  but  the  fact  that  the  Lake  reserves  are  very  small  com- 
pared to  the  annual  shipments  from  that  district,  while  the 
Southern  reserves  are  enormous  compared  to  the  present  annual 
draft  upon  them.  If  these  conditions  ever  change,  royalty  rates  in 
the  two  districts  will  become  more  nearly  equalized. 

ACTUAL  MARKETS  AND  PRICES 

The  preceding  discussion  has  dealt  with  the  elements  in- 
volved in  the  fixing  of  prices,  and  with  the  factors  which  deter- 
mine how  the  total  profits  are  to  be  divided  among  the  various 


PRICES,  PROFITS  AND  MARKETS  169 

parties  at  interest.  With  this  as  a  basis,  it  will  be  profitable 
to  take  up  some  consideration  of  the  two  great  ore  markets 
now  existing,  and  of  the  prices  which  ores  actually  attain  in 
these  markets. 

Prices  of  Lake  Superior  Ores. — Of  the  world's  ore  markets,  the 
one  covering  the  largest  tonnage  from  one  district  is  that  estab- 
lished for  Lake  Superior  ores.  Of  course  the  bulk  of  the  Lake 
Superior  ore  output  is  used  by  iron  and  steel  interests  mining  their 
own  ores,  and  this  portion  of  the  annual  output  does  not  reach  any 
market.  But  the  remainder  is  merchant  ore,  and  this  fraction 
may  now  amount  to  one-quarter  of  the  entire  Lake  output — or 
to  possibly  ten  to  fifteen  million  tons  per  annum.  Prices  for 
these  merchant  ores  are  quoted  and  reported  regularly,  so  that  the 
record  is  quite  complete.  As  in  every  other  commercial  trans- 
action, there  are  undoubtedly  minor  fluctuations  in  price  within 
the  year,  for  small  portions  of  the  tonnage,  but  these  may  be 
disregarded  here. 

The  price  of  Lake  ores  for  the  coming  season  is  fixed  usually  in 
the  late  winter  or  early  spring.  It  is  based  upon  current  anticipa- 
tions as  to  the  probable  course  of  the  iron  and  steel  market,  so  that 
ore  prices  fluctuate  more  or  less  in  accord  with  pig-iron  prices. 
It  is  easy  to  overestimate  the  importance  of  this  concordance, 
however,  for  of  course  the  price  of  ore  is  one  element  in  the  cost  of 
pig  iron,  so  that  the  relationship  is  not  entirely  prophetic,  but  in 
part  a  matter  of  cause  and  effect. 

For  forty  years  after  shipments  began  the  price  of  Lake  ores 
ranged,  on  the  average,  irregularly  downward.  The  minimum 
was  reached  during  the  1893-1897  depression;  and  since  that 
date  there  has  been  a  slight  recovery  on  the  average. 

In  considering  the  history  of  Lake  Superior  ore  prices,  as  in 
dealing  with  any  series  of  prices  over  a  long  term  of  years,  allow- 
ance must  be  made  for  the  great  changes  which  have  taken  place, 
from  time  to  time,  in  the  purchasing  value  of  the  dollar  in  which 
these  prices  are  expressed.  To  disregard  this  very  important 
factor  is  to  introduce  serious  errors  into  our  conclusions.  This 
is  particularly  noticeable  in  dealing  with  prices  during  the  decade 
or  so  from  the  commencement  of  the  Civil  War  to  the  resumption 
of  specie  payments;  for  during  this  period  actual  changes  in 
selling  conditions  produced  far  less  effect  upon  nominal  prices 
than  did  the  wide  changes  in  the  value  of  gold.  The  apparently 


170  IRON  ORES 

high  prices  of  ore  during  some  of  these  years  did  not  mean  really 
high  returns  to  the  miner,  for  everything  which  he  purchased 
was  paid  for-,  at  correspondingly  high  prices,  in  the  same  de- 
preciated currency. 

With  this  caution,  which  is  specially  necessary  in  dealing  with 
prices  covering  over  sixty  years  of  changing  dollar  values,  we 
may  take  up  the  records  as  they  stand. 

The  following  table  contains  data  on  Lake  Superior  ore  prices 
from  1856  to  1913  inclusive.  For  the  years  prior  to  1890,  the 
prices  quoted  are  taken  from  several  sources,  all  authoritative, 
but  not  strictly  comparable.  For  example  the  prices  from  1856 
to  1874  inclusive  are  for  standard  old-range  Bessemer  ore,  as 
given  by  the  Michigan  Commissioner  of  Mineral  Statistics; 
from  1875  to  1889  inclusive,  they  are  for  Republic  and  Champion 
ores,  which  normally  sold  somewhat  higher  than  the  standard 
used  for  the  preceding  years.  An  average  deduction  of  fifty  to 
sixty  cents  per  ton,  during  the  years  1875-1889  would  probably 
put  the  data  on  a  basis  exactly  comparable  with  those  given  for 
the  1956-1874  period.  From  1889  to  date  the  data  are  quoted 
from  the  Iron  Trade  Review. 

PRICES  OF  LAKE  SUPERIOR  IRON  ORE,  1854-1913 

Old  range  Mesabi  ' Iron   Price 


1856 

$8.00 

1857 

8.00 

1858 

6.50 

1859 

6.00 

1860 

5.25 

1861 

5.25 

1862 

5.25 

1863 

7.50 

1864 

8.50 

1865 

7.50 

1866 

9.50 

1867 

10.50 

1868 

8.25 

1869 

8.25 

1870 

8.50 

1871 

8.00 

1872 

9.00 

1873 

12.00 

1874 

9.00 

1875 

7.75 

PRICES,  PROFITS  AND  MARKETS 


PRICES  OF  LAKE  SUPERIOR  IRON,  1854-1913.  (Cntinued.) 


171 


1876 

Old  range 
Bessemer 

7.50 

Mesabi 
Bessemer 

Old  range 
non- 
Bessemer 

Mesabi 
non- 
Bessemer 

•  Iron 
Valley    : 
Bessemer 

Prices  > 
Foundry 
Iron  No.  2 

1877 

7.00 

1878 
1879 

6.50 
7.00 

1880 
1881 
1882 

10.00 
10.00 
10.00 

1883 

7.50 

$4.75 

1884 

6.00 

4.50 

1885 
1886 

5.75 
6.25 

4.00 
4.50 

1887 
1888 

7.00 
5.75 

5.00 
4.00 

1889 

5.50 

3.75 

1890 

5.50 

no  sale 

5.25 

no  sale 

$22.15 

$18.15 

1891 

4.50 

no  sale 

4.25 

no  sale 

15.15 

15.00 

1892 

4.50 

no  sale 

3.65 

no   ale 

15.00 

13.65 

1893 

3.85 

$3.00 

3.20 

no  sale 

12.65 

12.15 

1894 

2.75 

2.35 

2.50 

no  sale 

9.65 

9.65 

1895 

2.90 

2.19 

2.25 

$1.90 

9.40 

9.40 

1896 

4.00 

3.50 

2.70 

2.25 

12.40 

11.15 

1897 

2.60 

2.25 

2.15 

1.90 

8.35 

8.40 

1898 

2.75 

2.25 

1.85 

1.75 

9.55 

9.80 

1899 

3.00 

2.40 

2.15 

2.00 

10.30 

9.75 

1900 

5.50 

4.50 

4.25 

4.00 

24.15 

22.15 

1901 

4.25 

3.25 

3.00 

2.75 

16.15 

14.40 

1902 

4.25 

3.25 

3.25 

2.75 

15.90 

15.90 

1903 

4.50 

4.00 

3.60 

3.20 

21.50 

21.65 

1904 

3.25 

3.00 

2.75 

2.50 

13.35 

13.15 

1905 

3.75 

3.50 

3.20 

3.00 

15.50 

16.00 

1906 

4.25 

4.00 

3.70 

3.50 

17.25 

17.25 

1907 

5.00 

4.75 

4.20 

4.00 

21.50 

21.50 

1908 

4.50 

4.25 

3.70 

3.50 

16.00 

15.00 

1909 

4.50 

4.25 

3.70 

3.50 

14.75 

14.25 

1910 

5.00 

4.75 

4.20 

4.00 

19.00 

17.25 

1911 

4.50 

4.25 

3.70 

3.50 

15.00 

13.75 

1912 

3.75 

3.50 

3.00 

2.85 

14.25 

13.25 

1913 

4.40 

4.15 

3.60 

3.40 

17.25 

17.50 

The  prices  quoted  in  the  preceding  table  are  for  ores  carrying 
a  certain  percentage  of  iron,  delivered  at  Lake  Erie  ports. 
Now,  as  the  average  grade  of  the  ore  shipments  from  the  Lake 
region  has  decreased  slowly,  there  have  at  intervals  been  changes 
in  the  percentage  of  iron  contained  in  the  ore  used  as  a  basis  for 


172  IRON  ORES 

prices.  These  changes  of  course  affect  the  comparison,  and  the 
following  table,  quoted  direct  from  the  Iron  Trade  Review,  is 
serviceable  in  calling  attention  to  the  real  changes  in  price  per 
unit  of  iron. 

PRICE  PER  UNIT  OF  IRON,  1903-1913 

Fluctuations  of  iron-ore  prices  expressed  in  values  of  units  of  iron  in 
natural  state. 

Old  Range  Mesabi 

Non-  Non- 
Bessemer,              Bessemer,  Bessemer,             Bessemer, 
cents                      cents                      cents                      cents 

1903 7.94  6.82  7.05  6.06 

1904 5.73  5.21  5.29  4.73 

1905 6.61  6.06  6.17  5.66 

1906 7.50  7.01  7.05  6.60 

1907 9.09  8.16  8.64  7.77 

1908 8.18  7.18  7.73  6.80 

1909 8.18  7.18  7.73  6.80 

1910 9.09  8.16  8.64  7.77 

1911 8.18  7.18  7.73  6.80 

1912 6 . 82  5 . 83  6 . 36  5 . 53 

1913 8.00  6.99  7.55  6.60 

The  average  prices  per  unit  of  iron,  for  the  eleven  years  covered 
by  the  preceding  table,  are  as  follows: 

Old  Range  Bessemer  7 . 76  cents 

Mesabi  Bessemer  7.27  cents 

Old  Range  non-Bessemer 6 . 89  cents 

Mesabi  non-Bessemer 6 . 47  cents 

For  a  long  and  fairly  representative  period,  therefore,  we  may 
assume  that  the  bulk  of  the  merchant  tonnage  of  Lake  ores  sold, 
at  lower  Lake  ports,  at  around  seven  cents  per  unit  of  contained 
iron;  more  for  low-phosphorus  ores  and  less  for  high-phosphorus 
ores. 

The  Atlantic  Ore  Market. — The  Lake  ore  market  has  been  said 
to  be  the  largest  in  the  world,  so  far  as  tonnage  sold  from  a  single 
district  is  concerned.  But  it  is  not  so  complicated,  so  large  in 
total  tonnage,  or  so  widely  competitive,  as  that  existing  along 
the  North  Atlantic  coasts  of  Europe  and  America.  It  might  be 
further  added  that  this  Atlantic  market  seems  likely  to  attain 
greatly  increased  importance  in  future. 

It  is  difficult  to  make  any  very  precise  estimate  as  to  the  actual 
tonnage  of  iron  ore  sold  in  the  Atlantic  coast  markets  during  a 
normal  year.  It  amounts,  however,  to  considerably  in  excess 


PRICES,  PROFITS  AND  MARKETS  173 

of  twenty  million  tons  annually.  Of  this  about  half  is  taken  by 
Germany,  and  almost  half  by  Great  Britain.  The  remainder  is 
bought  chiefly  by  furnaces  in  Belgium  and  the  United  States; 
for  the  Sydney  plants,  though  using  imported  (Newfoundland) 
ore,  take  it  from  their  own  mines  and  so  do  not  enter  the  general 
market. 

The  mines  which  furnish  this  large  merchant  tonnage  are 
located  in  widely  separated  countries.  Sweden  and  Spain  furnish 
the  bulk  of  the  British  and  German  imports,  if  we  disregard  ore 
brought  into  Germany  from  French  Lorraine.  Newfound- 
land, Cuba,  Algiers,  Russia,  the  Adirondacks  and  other  areas 
of  less  importance  furnish  smaller  portions  of  the  Atlantic  mer- 
chant tonnage.  Details  as  to  production,  exports  and  imports 
of  ore  will  be  found  tabulated  in  various  chapters  of  Part  III 
of  this  volume,  and  it  is  unnecessary  to  present  exact  figures  here. 
What  we  are  chiefly  concerned  with  now  is  that  here  is  a  market 
taking  twenty  million  tons  or  more  a  year  of  iron  ore;  taking  it 
from  many  competitive  sources,  and  using  it  in  many  competitive 
furnaces.  It  is  unquestionably  a  far  wider  and  freer  market 
than  the  Lake  market  can  ever  be.  And,  since  most  of  the 
furnaces  which  it  supplies  are  on  tidewater  (or  on  navigable 
rivers  or  canals),  the  Atlantic  ore  market  is  the  keystone  of  the 
world's  export  trade  in  iron  and  steel  products. 

Within  the  Atlantic  market  the  range  in  ore  prices  is  wide, 
varying  from  year  to  year  according  to  the  condition  of  ocean 
freights,  as  well  as  varying  more  definitely  according  to  grade 
and  character  of  ore. 

The  part  played  by  the  ocean  freight  rate  is  important,  but 
too  variable  to  be  more  than  approximately  stated  here.  With 
the  exception  of  such  long  hauls  as  the  proposed  Chilian  and 
Brazilian  ores  will  require,  it  may  be  said  that  during  a  long 
series  of  years  the  ocean-borne  iron  ore  of  the  world  pays  a 
freight  rate  ranging  between  three  and  seven  shillings  per  ton. 
Few  hauls  ever  fall  below  the  minimum  quoted;  while  little 
important  tonnage  moves  at  a  higher  rate  than  the  maximum 
stated  above,  even  in  years  of  brisk  ocean  traffic.  These  limits 
may  be  reduced,  for  convenience,  to  a  unit  basis;  they  would 
range  between  perhaps  one  and  one-half  to  three  cents  per  unit 
of  metallic  iron. 

The  total  price  realized  at  Atlantic  coast  markets,  including 


174  IRON  ORES 

of  course  the  ocean  freight,  may  range  between  five  and  one- 
half  and  eight  and  one-half  cents  per  unit  of  iron.  The  lowest 
price  is  secured  by  ores  with  undesirable  physical  structure, 
with  phosphorus  between  difficult  limits,  or  with  other  unusual 
constituents.  The  higher  unit  prices  are  realized  by  ores  high 
in  iron,  and  with  phosphorus  either  below  the  acid  Bessemer  limit 
or  above  the  basic  Bessemer  limit. 


CHAPTER  XV 
THE  EFFECTS  OF  TIME  ON  VALUATION 

In  Chapter  IX,  where  the  basal  factors  in  valuation  were  sum- 
marized, it  was  noted  that  the  element  of  time  must  be  con- 
sidered in  attempting  to  arrive  at  the  present  value  of  a  large  ore 
property.  This  is  true,  not  only  in  the  sense  in  which  it  is  now 
commonly  understood,  but  in  an  entirely  different  and  (to  some 
extent)  opposing  sense.  If  we  are  to  come  to  a  correct  con- 
clusion as  to  the  present  valuation  to  be  placed  on  an  ore  property, 
we  must  not  only  allow  a  discount  for  the  time  which  will  be 
taken  in  exhausting  it  and  realizing  the  total  profits,  but  we  must 
take  into  consideration  the  factors  which  are  likely  to  increase 
ore  values  in  future. 

Determination  of  Total  Present  Value. — After  the  engineer  has 
determined  (1)  the  available  tonnage  of  ore  on  the  property  and 
(2)  the  average  value  or  profit  per  ton  of  this  ore,  he  is  prepared 
to  undertake  the  final  determination  of  (3)  the  total  present 
value  of  the  property. 

In  case  the  total  tonnage  is  so  small  that  it  will  all  be  worked 
out  in  the  course  of  the  first  year  after  purchase,  the  total  present 
value  of  the  property  is  of  course  found  by  simply  multiplying 
tonnage  by  value  per  ton.  But  except  in  the  case  of  very  small 
properties,  the  complete  extraction  of  the  ore  will  necessarily 
be  spread  over  a  number  of  years,  under  which  circumstances 
the  problem  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  simple  multiplication — a 
fact  which  is  often  overlooked. 

To  put  this  matter  in  its  simplest  terms,  it  is  obvious  that  a 
dollar  which  will  not  be  earned  or  received  until  1950  has  not  the 
same  present  value  as  a  dollar  receivable  during  the  current 
year.  A  ton  of  ore  which  will  not  be  mined  until  1950  can  not, 
accordingly,  be  considered  to  be  as  valuable  as  a  ton  which  will 
be  mined  and  sold  or  used  during  the  present  year.  In  order 
to  arrive  at  the  total  value  of  a  large  ore  property  it  is  therefore 
necessary  to  discount  the  value  of  the  tonnage  according  to  the 
length  of  time  for  which  certain  portions  of  it  will  remain  unmined. 

175 


176  IRON  ORES 

It  will  perhaps  be  clearest  if  the  matter  is  put  in  the  form  of 
a  specific  instance.  We  may  assume,  therefore,  that  we  are  deal- 
ing with  a  property  containing  1,000,000  tons  of  iron  ore;  and 
that  the  owner  expects  either  to  have  this  mined  on  a  royalty 
of  twenty-five  cents  per  ton,  or  if  he  mines  it  himself  to  receive 
net  profits  of  the  same  amount  per  ton.  In  either  case  the  total 
amount  which  will  ultimately  be  received  from  the  property  will 
be  $250,000.  But,  unless  the  entire  1,000,000  tons  is  to  be 
mined  in  the  first  year,  it  is  obvious  that  the  actual  present 
value  of  the  property  will  be  something  less  than  $250,000,  for 
a  series  of  payments  to  be  made  over  a  series  of  years  must  be 
discounted  in  order  to  determine  their  present  value.  All  of 
this  is  simple  enough,  but  it  is  rarely  understood  how  very 
heavily  the  more  distant  payments  must  be  discounted,  and  how 
great  a  difference  there  often  is  between  total  and  present  value. 

In  order  to  understand  the  importance  of  this  factor,  it  is 
necessary  to  recall  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  problem  in  com- 
pound discount;  and  that,  as  will  be  later  noted,  we  have  to 
assume  a  rather  high  rate  of  interest  because  of  the  character  of 
the  security  offered.  Even  at  6  percent  the  discounting  effect 
is  very  great,  as  is  shown  by  the  following  table. 

TIME  VALUES  AT  6  PERCENT 
CSf  Discount  Years  Compound  Discount 

.0600  0.943  10  1.7908  0.558 
.1236  0.890  15  2.3965  0.417 
.1910  0.840  20  3.2071  0.311 


4  .2625  0.792  25  4.2919  0.233 

5  .3382  0.747  30  5.7435  0.174 

6  1.4185  0.705  35  7.6861  0.130 

7  1.5036  0.665  40  10.2858  0.097 

8  1.5938  0.627  50  18.4190 

9  1.6895  0.592  

Proper  Carrying  Charge. — In  figuring  amortization  against  ore 
reserves,  as  well  as  in  calculating  the  present  value  of  large 
reserves,  there  seems  to  be  frequently  shown  a  tendency  to  assume 
an  unfairly  low  interest  rate.  It  is  assumed,  for  example,  that 
because  a  steel  company  may,  during  years  of  easy  money,  float  its 
first  mortgage  bonds  on  a  5  percent  basis,  or  perhaps  somewhat 
better,  that  ore  calculations  may  be  made  on  the  same  basis. 
Indeed  we  have  recently  had  one  prominent  instance — the  so- 


THE  EFFECTS  OF  TIME  ON  VALUATION       177 

called  Hill  ore  lease — where  4  percent  seems  to  have  been 
accepted  as  the  basis  for  calculation. 

Taking  everything  into  consideration,  it  does  not  seem  justifi- 
able, in  considering  long-time  ore  calculations,  to  assume  a  carry- 
ing rate  of  less  than  6  percent.  It  does  not  seem  probable  that, 
under  any  ordinary  conditions  in  the  American  money  market, 
any  steel  company  whatever  could  secure  money  at  a  lower  rate 
if  ore  reserves  were  the  only  security  offered.  We  have,  indeed, 
one  very  decisive  case  of  this  kind  available  for  consideration. 
In  1907  the  Spanish-American  Iron  Company,  a  subsidiary  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Steel  Company,  offered  a  series  of  6  percent 
bonds,  secured  by  its  Cuban  ore  deposits,  on  a  basis  which  per- 
mitted public  sale  at  98|.  These  bonds  were  guaranteed,  prin- 
cipal and  interest,  by  the  parent  company;  and  were  part  of  an 
authorized  issue  of  five  million  dollars,  against  which  six  hundred 
million  tons  of  ore  were  pledged.  Of  course  1907  was  a  year  of 
dear  money  throughout,  but  in  view  of  the  ample  security  and 
incidental  guarantees  of  various  sorts  which  characterized  this 
issue,  it  does  not  seem  probable  that  a  straight  ore  bond  could  be 
floated  by  any  company,  even  in  an  average  year,  at  a  lower  rate. 

The  Great  Northern  ore  lease  is,  in  this  connection,  of  peculiar 
interest,  though  it  can  hardly  be  considered  as  making  a  sound 
precedent.  It  will  be  recalled  that  in  the  Hill  lease  the  ore  price 
increased  4  percent  per  annum.  This  would  seem  to  have  been 
an  entirely  false  basis  for  calculation,  and  the  effect  of  the  un- 
justifiably low  interest  rate  is  shown  markedly  when  the  ore 
prices  are  discounted  on  a  proper  basis.  The  base-ore  nomi- 
nally valued  for  the  first  year  at  eighty- five  cents  per  ton;  but 
when  values,  are  re-calculated  on  a  6  percent  basis,  it  will  be 
found  that  this  means  a  real  " present  value"  of  forty  to  sixty 
cents  a  ton,  according  to  the  probable  duration  of  the  ore 
reserves  covered  by  the  lease.  The  value  per  ton  placed  upon 
the  Hill  ores  was  in  reality,  therefore,  much  less  than  the  face  or 
nominal  value  which  has  been  so  frequently  discussed. 

It  might  further  be  noted,  in  relation  to  proper  interest  rates, 
that  the  main  ore  reserves  now  coming  into  sight  are  located  in 
areas  where  local  money  conditions  favor  high  rates.  Brazil, 
Cuba,  and  even  Alabama  and  Texas,  are  not  areas  of  normally 
cheap  money;  and  local  financing  of  a  straight  ore  security  would 
probably  mean  rates  ranging  from  8  percent  upward.  So  that, 
12 


178  IRON  ORES 

all  things  considered,  we  are  not  likely  to  under-estimate  the 
matter  much  by  assuming  6  percent  as  the  minimum  carrying 
charge  or  discount  rate.  Even  at  this  rate  the  discounting  effect 
is  more  than  might  casually  be  expected.  If  ore  is  being  mined 
on  a  royalty  basis  of  twenty-five  cents  per  ton,  the  royalties  for 
the  tenth  year  of  the  lease  can  be  given  a  present  value  of 
only  fourteen  cents  per  ton;  while  those  to  be  earned  in  the 
fortieth  year  have  a  value  now  of  only  about  two  and  one- half 
cents  a  ton.  In  other  words,  a  property  which  can  not  be  worked 
out  in  forty  or  fifty  years  does  not  derive  much  additional 
present  value  from  the  ore  still  in  the  ground  at  the  end  of  that 
time.  It  is  this  fact  which  puts  a  purely  commercial  limitation 
on  the  acquisition  of  excessive  ore-reserves,  as  will  be  pointed  out 
in  a  later  chapter. 

Possible  Changes  in  Ore  Values. — The  operation  above  dis- 
cussed— the  discounting  of  total  value  to  allow  for  the  years  spent 
in  extraction — has  an  air  of  precision  and  finality  which  makes  it 
very  attractive  to  a  certain  type  of  mind;  and  accordingly  we 
find  that  many  estimates  are  now  so  discounted.  It  is  true  that 
those-  who  insist  on  precise  results  can  go  no  further  than  this 
stage  of  refinement;  but  it  is  also  true  that  those  who  prefer 
general  accuracy  to  misleading  precision  must  still  consider 
another  factor  in  the  problem. 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  assumed,  as  is  the  common  practice, 
that  the  average  value  per  ton  will  remain  fixed  during  the  pro- 
ductive life  of  the  property.  For  short  periods  of  time,  this 
assumption  is  reasonably  correct,  and  it  would  be  simply  hair- 
splitting to  consider  any  other  possibility  if  the  property  is  to  be 
exhausted  within  five  or  ten  years.  But  if  the  property  promises 
a  life  of  twenty,  or  fifty  or  one  hundred  years — and  there  are 
such  properties  still  in  the  market — the  matter  takes  on  an 
entirely  different  aspect. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  writer,  the  principal  factors  which  must 
be  considered  in  this  connection  may  be  summarized  as 
follows : 

1 .  There  is  little  probability  that  any  large  supply  of  ore  grad- 
ing above  50  percent  metallic  iron  still  exists  unknown  in  the 
United  States.  So  far  as  magnetites  and  hematites  are  concerned, 
the  inferior  limit  might  be  safely  lowered  to  40  percent,  and 
the  above  statement  would  still  hold,  for  it  is  highly  improbable 


THE  EFFECTS  OF  TIME  ON  VALUATION       179 

that  any  unknown  field  exists  containing  one  hundred  million 
tons  of  magnetite  or  hematite  of  even  this  grade.  But  with  re- 
gard to  brown  ores  the  case  is  different,  for  there  are  probably 
large  tonnages  of  these  ores,  grading  from  40  to  50  percent,  still 
unprospected. 

2.  There  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  brown  ores  of  the 
type  now  shipped  from  the  north  shore  of  Cuba  will  be  dis- 
covered, in  really  immense  tonnages,  elsewhere  in  the  Caribbean 
area.     These  and  the  Wabana  ores  may  ultimately  control  the 
location  of  the  export  steel  mills  of  the  United  States,  but  they 
will  not  serve  to  decrease  the  values  of  higher  grade  interior  ores. 

3.  The  supply  from  Canada  may  be  increased  from  sources  now 
unknown,  but  the  chief  possibilities  for  large  new  ore  fields  in 
Canada  are  so  located  that  they  will  hardly  affect  the  world's 
ore  trade. 

4.  The   high-grade   supplies   from   Sweden,    Norway,    Spain, 
Algiers  and  Morocco  will  continue  for  years  to  come,  but  will 
hardly  extend  their  present  markets. 

5.  South  America,  Africa  and  Asia  may,  and  probably  will, 
yield  immense  new  tonnages;  but  until  the  manufacturing  in- 
dustries and  general  civilization  of  the  world  seek  new  centers 
these  distant  deposits  can  not  affect  values  to  any  calculable 
extent. 

The  preceding  summaries  merely  embody  the  writer's  judg- 
ment on  the  points  at  issue,  and  are  of  course  open  to  discussion. 
But  if  they  are  substantially  correct,  two  deductions  must  in- 
evitably be  drawn  from  them. 

I.  Domestic  ores  grading  above  50  percent  metallic  iron  and 
so  located  as  to  reach  interior  markets  are  not  likely  to  be  sub- 
jected to  new  and  serious  competition.     As  the  domestic  reserves 
of  this  grade  are  limited,  ores  of  this  type  will  increase  in  value 
steadily  and  perhaps  rapidly.     Under  these  circumstances,  the 
increase  in  value  per  ton  will  in  most  cases,  counter-balance  the 
allowance  made  in  discounting  the  total  value  to  present  value; 
and  therefore  a  company  owning  a  fifty-year  supply  of  such  ores 
is  probably  fairly  entitled  to  value  them  somewhat  as  if  the  entire 
tonnage  could  be  used  in  the  present  year. 

II.  Domestic    ores    grading    between    50    and    35    percent 
metallic  iron  are  likely  to  be  subject  to  competition  from  at 
least  three  sources:  the  further  development  of  the  Caribbean 


180  IRON  ORES 

and  Wabana  fields,  the  discovery  of  new  brown-ore  areas,  and 
the  marketing  of  low-grade  magnetites.  This  competition  is 
likely  to  prevent  ores  of  this  grade  from  showing  a  very  rapid  in- 
crease in  value;  and  in  dealing  with  large  holdings  of  this  type  of 
ore  it  is  probably  safest  to  discount  their  value  according  to  their 
probable  length  of  life. 


PART  III.— IRON  ORES  OF  THE  WORLD 

CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  IRON  ORES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Before  taking  up  the  description  of  the  various  iron-ore  pro- 
ducing regions  of  the  United  States,  it  will  be  well  to  get  some  idea 
both  as  to  the  rank  of  the  country,  as  a  whole,  among  the  ore- 
producers  of  the  world  and  as  to  the  general  tendencies  which 
may  exist  in  the  American  ore  trade  itself.  The  present  chapter 
may  therefore  be  regarded  as  a  preliminary  discussion,  covering 
these  general  points  of  interest.  Except  where  otherwise  noted, 
the  statistics  on  which  the  discussion  is  based  are  those  pub- 
lished annually  by  the  United  States  Geological  Survey.  They 
have  been  rearranged  where  necessary  to  better  serve  our  present 
purpose. 

Status  of  the  United  States. — For  a  number  of  years  past  the 
United  States  has  been  both  the  leading  consumer  and  the  leading 
producer  of  iron  ore,  its  consumption  and  output  being  approxi- 
mately two-fifths  of  the  world's  totals.  In  ore  production 
Germany  ranks  second  and  Great  Britain  third,  ordinarily  fol- 
lowed by  France,  Spain,  Russia,  Sweden  and  Austria  in  the 
order  named.  The  three  leading  producers — the  United  States, 
Germany  and  Great  Britain — usually  produce  together  about 
three-quarters  of  the  world's  output  of  iron  ore.  In  later  chap- 
ters details  will  be  given  as  to  the  world's  annual  output  of 
iron  ore. 

Of  the  leading  ore  producers,  Spain  and  Sweden  export  most  of 
of  the  ore  mined  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  Cuba,  Newfound- 
land and  Algeria,  all  of  which  furnish  about  one  million  tons 
yearly  for  export.  On  the  other  hand,  Belgium,  which  has  a 
very  low  rank  as  a  producer  of  iron  ore,  is  a  consumer  on  a 
considerable  scale.  Great  Britain  is  a  heavy  importer  of  ore,  and 
Germany  also  takes  considerable  foreign  ore. 

The  United  States  is  practically  self-contained  in  this  regard, 
for  the  exports  of  ore  almost  balance  the  imports.  This  condi- 
tion, however,  is  not  likely  to  continue,  and  it  is  probable  that  in 

181 


182 


IRON  ORES 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     183 


future  imported  ores  will  make  up  a  more  important  proportion 
of  the  consumption  than  they  have  in  the  past. 

American  Iron-ore  Output,  1860-1912. — Detailed  statistics 
relative  to  the  production  of  iron  ore  in  the  United  States  are  not 
available,  except  for  a  few  of  the  census  years,  back  of  the  year 
1889,  when  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  first  began  col- 
lection of  data  on  this  subject.  The  following  table  contains  all 
the  definite  statistics  relative  to  the  total  iron-ore  production  of 
the  United  States,  for  such  years  as  are  covered  by  reliable  data. 
Later  the  present  writer  furnishes  estimates  for  the  earlier  years, 
based  on  the  pig-iron  production,  concerning  which  we  have  more 
complete  information  prior  to  1889. 

In  the  table  following,  the  data  for  the  years  1860,  1870  and 
1880  are  taken  from  reports  of  the  federal  census  for  those 
years;  the  figures  from  1889  to  the  present  date  are  from  the 
annual  statistical  volume  issued  by  the  United  States  Geological 
Survey. 


PRODUCTION  OF  IRON  ORE  IN  UNITED  STATES,  1860-1910 


Year 

1860 
1870 
1880 
1889 
1890 
1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 


Long  tons 

2,873,460 
3,831,891 
7,120,362 
14,518,041 
16,036,043 
14,591,178 
16,296,666 
11,587,629 
11,879,679 
15,957,614 
16,005,449 
17,518,046 
19,433,716 
24,683,173 
27,553,161 


Year 

1901 
1902 
1903 
1904 
1905 
1906 
1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 
1911 
1912 
1913 
1914 


Long  tons 

28,887,479 
35,554,135 
35,019,308 
27,644,330 
42,526,133 
47,749,728 
51,720,619 
35,924,771 
51,155,437 
56,889,734 
43,876,552 
55,150,147 


Imports  of  Iron  Ore. — The  following  tables,  taken  from  the 
statistical  volume  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  give 
details  as  to  the  import  movement  in  iron  ores. 

The  first  table  gives  the  total  imports  of  ore  into  the  United 
States,  for  each  year  from  1872  to  date.  Prior  to  1872  there 
had  been  irregular  and  small  imports,  mostly  from  Canada,  of 
which  no  record  was  kept  by  the  government. 


184 


IRON  ORES 


IMPORTS  OF  IRON  ORE,  1872-1912 


Year 

Quantity       Year 

Quantity 

Year 

Quantity 

1872 

23,733 

1885 

390,786 

1899 

674,082 

1873 

45,981 

1886 

1,039,433 

1900 

897,831 

1874 

57,987 

1887 

1,194,301 

1901 

966,950 

1875 

56,655 

1888 

587,470 

1902 

1,165,470 

1876 

17,284 

1889 

853,573 

1903 

980,440 

1877 

30,669 

1890 

1,246,830 

1904 

487,613 

1878 

28,212 

1891 

912,864 

1905 

845,651 

1879a 

150,197 

1892 

806,585 

1906 

1,060,390 

18796 

284,141 

1893 

526,951 

1907 

1,229,168 

1880 

493,408 

1894 

167,307 

1908 

776,898 

1881 

782,887 

J895 

524,153 

1909 

1,694,957 

1882 

589,655 

1896 

682,806 

1910 

2,591,031 

1883 

490,875 

1897 

489,970 

1911 

1,811,732 

1884 

487,820 

1898 

187,208 

1912 

2,104,576 

a  Fiscal  years  end. 


b  Calendar  years  begin. 


As  regards  the  source  of  these  imports,  details  are  found  in 
the  table  on  page  183.  It  will  be  seen  that  Cuba  is  by  far  the  most 
important  contributor;  followed  by  Sweden,  Newfoundland, 
Canada  and  Spain  in  the  order  named. 

Exports  of  Iron  Ore. — The  ore  exported  from  the  United  States 
so  far  as  recorded  is  given  in  the  following  table,  also  taken 
from  the  Geological  Survey  publication.  It  may  be  noted  that 
practically  all  of  these  exports  are  of  Lake  Superior  ores,  passing 
directly  from  the  mines  to  Canadian  furnaces.  Smaller  tonnages 
go  into  Canada  from  the  Lake  Champlain  region.  A  tonnage 
reported  by  the  Government  as  clearing  each  year  from  Puget 
Sound  is  somewhat  mystifying,  unless  it  is  of  ore  sent  as  flux 
to  some  British  Columbia  smelter. 


Year 
1899 

1900 
1901 
1902 
1903 
1904 
1905 


EXPORTS  OF  IRON  ORE,  1899-1912 

Tonnage  Year  Tonnage 

40,665  1906  265,240 

51,460  1907  278,608 

64,703  1908  309,099 

88,455  1909  455,934 

,80,611  1910  748,875 

213,865  1911  768,386 

208,017  1912  1,195,742 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     185 


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186 


IRON  ORES 


With  the  completion  of  the  0  jib  way  plant  of  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation  it  is  of  course  obvious  that  exports  of  American 
ore  will  increase  largely. 

Tonnage  Available  for  Consumption. — In  a  later  chapter  some 
attempt  will  be  made  to  arrive  at  an  estimate  of  the  actual  con- 
sumption of  ore  in  the  United  States,  in  comparison  with  the 
amount  of  pig  iron  produced.  At  present,  however,  it  will  be 
of  more  immediate  interest  to  determine  merely  the  amount 
of  ore  which  is  nominally  available  for  consumption  each  year, 
by  striking  a  balance  between  production,  imports  and  exports. 
Thus  I  have  done  in  the  following  table,  which  covers  the 
years  1899  to  1912  inclusive. 


TONNAGE  AVAILABLE  FOR  CONSUMPTION,  1899-1912 


Year 

Domestic 
production 

Imports 

.Exports 

Available  for 
consumption 

1899 

24,683,173 

674,082 

40,665 

25,316,590 

1900 

27,553,161 

897,831 

51,460 

28,399,512 

1901 

28.887,479 

966,950 

64,703 

29,789,726 

1902 

35,554,135 

1,165,470 

88,445 

36,631,160 

1903 

35,019,308 

980,440 

80,611 

35,919,137 

1904 

27,644,330 

487,613 

213,865 

27,918,078 

1905 

42,526,133 

845,651 

208,017 

43,163,767 

1906 

47,749,728 

1,060,390 

265,240 

48,544,878 

1907 

51,720,619 

1,229,168 

278,608 

52,671,179 

1908 

35,924,771 

776,898 

309,089 

36,392,580 

1909 

51,155,437 

1,694,957 

455,934 

52,394,560 

1910 

56,889,734 

2,591,031 

748,875 

58,731,890 

1911 

43,876,552 

1,811,732 

768,386 

44,919,898 

1912 

55,150,147 

2,104,576 

1,195,742 

56,058,981 

American  Ore  Output,  by  States. — The  following  tables  give 
the  output  of  iron  ore  in  the  United  States  during  the  years  1910, 
1911  and  1912  respectively,  classified  both  by  kinds  of  ore  and 
by  the  States  in  which  it  was  produced.  As  the  data  contained 
in  these  tables  will  be  useful  as  bases  for  various  investigations, 
they  are  inserted  as  a  matter  of  convenient  record. 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     187 


60 


50 


40 


-30 


20 


10 


/0s 


YEARS 


FIG.  22. — Iron-ore  output  of  entire  United  States,  of  the  Lake  Superior 
district,  and  of  the  Mesabi  range. 


188 


IRON  ORES 


1910 


State 

Hematite 

Brown  ore 

Magnetite 

Carbon- 
ate 

Total 
quantity 

Alabama. 

3,678,139 

1,123  136 

4  801  275 

California,    Colorado, 
New  Mexico,  Wash- 
ington, and  Wyoming 
Connecticut  and  Mas- 

656,629 

15,975 
34,158 

189,246 



861,850 
34,158 

sachusetts  

Georgia  

60,324 

253,554 

313  878 

Kentucky   and    West 
Virginia  

47,493 

16,854 

64,347 

Maryland.  .  . 

14,062 

14,062 

Michigan 

13,303,906 

13  303  906 

Minnesota  

31,966,769 

31,966,769 

Missouri  

55,832 

22,509 

78,341 

New  Jersey  . 

(a) 

°52  1,832 

521,832 

New  York  

64,738 

(°) 

al,222,471 

1,287,209 

North  Carolina. 

65,278 

65,278 

Ohio  ... 

22,320 

22  320 

Pennsylvania  
Tennessee  

846 
301,838 

106,544 
430,409 

632,409 

739,799 
732,247 

Texas  . 

29535 

29  535 

Virginia  

81,647 

821,131 

599 

903,377 

Wisconsin  

1,148,846 

705 

1,149,551 

Total  

51,367,007 

2,868,572 

2,631,835 

22,320 

56,889,734 

0  Brown  ore  is  included  in  magnetite. 

1911 


State 

Hematite 

Brown  ore 

Magnetite 

Carbonate 

Total 
quantity 

Alabama  

2,983,440 

844,351 

3,827  791 

Georgia  .    . 

14,955 

188  934 

203  889 

Michigan  

10,329,039 

10,329,039 

Minnesota  .  . 

24,645,105 

24  645,105 

Missouri. 

57,201 

8,124 

65  325 

New  Jersey  

2,182 

464,052 

466,234 

New  York  
Ohio  

32,048 

1,029,231 

15,707 

1,061,279 
15  707 

Pennsylvania.  .  .  . 
Tennessee 

9,692 
255  373 

49,906 
208  462 

477,908 

537,506 
463  835 

Utah  

39,903 

39  903 

Virginia  .... 

63,019 

550,142 

862 

614  023 

Wisconsin 

698,660 

698  660 

Other  States0 

537  692 

140  090 

230  474 

908  256 

Total  

39,626,224 

2,032,094 

2,202,527 

15,707 

43,876,552 

0  California,  Colorado,  Connecticut,  Idaho,  Kentucky,  Maryland, 
Massachusetts,  Mississippi,  Montana,  Nevada,  New  Mexico,  North  Carolina, 
West  Virginia,  and  Wyoming. 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     189 


1912 


State 

Hematite 

Brown  ore 

Magnetite 

Carbon- 
ate 

Total 
quantity 

Percentage 
of  increase 
(+)  or  de- 
crease (  —  ) 
in  1912 

Alabama. 

3,814,361 

749,242 

4,563,603 

+  19.22 

California. 

2,508 

2,508 

(°) 

Georgia. 

(6) 

6134,637 

134,637 

-33  97 

Kentu  cky 

27  373 

27,373 

(«) 

Maryland. 

3,200 

3,200 

(°) 

Michigan 

11,191,430 

11,191,430 

+  8  35 

JMinnesota 

34  431  768 

34,431,768 

+39  71 

Missouri  .  .  . 
New  Jersey 

39,721 

3,759 

364,673 

43,480 
364,673 

-33.44 
-21.78 

New  York 

106  327 

1,110,345 

1,216,672 

+  14  64 

North 
Carolina 

68,322 

68,322 

(«) 

Ohio. 

10,346 

10,346 

-34  13 

Pennsyl- 
vania   
Tennessee. 

10,557 
245  754 

30,371 
171,131 

476,153 

517,081 
416,885 

-  3.80 
—  10  12 

Texas 

3000 

3  000 

(«) 

Utah 

7,280 

7,280 

-81.76 

Virginia. 

47472 

398,833 

446,305 

-27.31 

West 
Virginia  

5,061 

5,061 

(°) 

Wisconsin. 

860  600 

860,600 

+23.18 

Other 

States6...  . 

562,219 

116,172 

157,532 

835,923 

+°4.09 

Total  

51,345,782 

1,614,486 

2,179,533 

10,346 

55,150,147 

+25.69 

0  Less  than  three  producers  in  California,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  North 
Carolina,  Texas,  and  West  Virginia  in  1911,  and  permission  not  secured  to 
publish  State  totals.  Increases  and  decreases  in  1912,  therefore,  included 
in  "Other  States." 

6  Hematite  included  in  brown  ore. 

c  Colorado,  Connecticut,  Idaho,  Massachusetts,  Montana,  Nevada,  New 
Mexico,  and  Wyoming. 

Iron-Ore  Districts  of  the  United  States. — Iron  ores,  in  greater 
or  less  quantity,  are  known  to  occur  in  almost  every  State  and 
Territory  of  the  United  States;  and  at  one  time  or  another  iron 
mining  has  been  carried  on  in  practically  all  of  these  political 
divisions.  During  recent  years,  however,  from  25  to  30  states 
appear  in  the  producing  list,  and  no  serious  change  in  this  respect 
seems  likely  to  occur  in  the  near  future. 

For  convenience  both  in  description  and  in  the  presentation 


190 


IRON  ORES 


of  statistics  in  a  really  intelligible  form,  it  is  advisable  to  group 
the  producing  states  in  four  natural  districts,  defined  both  by 
geographic  and  trade  conditions.  The  four  districts  in  question, 
with  the  states  which  they  include,  are: 

1.  Lake  Superior  District;  including  the  producing  states  of 
Minnesota,  Michigan  and  Wisconsin. 

2.  Southern  District;  including  the  states  of  Alabama,  Georgia, 
the  Carolinas,  the  Virginias,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Maryland, 
Arkansas,  Missouri  and  Texas. 

3.  Northeastern  District;  including  New  York,  New  England, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio. 

4.  Western  District;  including  the  states  of  the  Plains,   the 
Rocky  Mountain  and  Pacific  Coast  regions. 

The  following  table  gives  the  production  of  iron  ore  in  these 
four  districts  during  the  years  1905  to  1912,  inclusive. 

IRON  ORE  PRODUCTION,  BY  DISTRICTS,  1905-1912 


1905 

1906 

1907 

Tonnage 

Percent 

Tonnage 

Percent 

Tonnage 

Percent 

Lake  Superior  .  . 
Southern  
Northeastern..  . 
Western  

33,480,367 
5,700,819 
2,520,845 
824,102 

78.73 
13.41 
5.93 
1.93 

38,035,084 
6,325,710 
2,582,666 
806,268 

79.66 
13.24 
5.41 
1.69 

41,638,744 
6,427,195 
2,823,422 
831,258 

80.51 
12.42 
5.46 
1.61 

42,526,133 

100.00 

47,749,728 

100.00 

51,720,619 

100.00 

1908 

1909 

1910 

Tonnage 

Percent 

Tonnage 

Percent 

Tonnage 

Percent 

Lake  Superior.  . 
Southern  

28,225  412 
5,639,201 

78.57 

15  70 

41,942,969 
6,294,145 

81.99 
12  30 

46,420,226 
7,002  340 

81.60 
12  31 

Northeastern.  .  . 
Western 

1,590,098 
470,060 

4.42 
1  31 

2,280,741 
637  582 

4.46 
1  25 

2,605,318 
861  850 

4.58 
1  51 

35,924,771 

100.00 

51,155,437 

100.00 

56,889,734 

100.00 

1911 

1912 

1913 

Tonnage 

Percent 

Tonnage 

Percent 

Tonnage 

Percent 

Lake  Superior.  . 
Southern  

35,672,804 
5,367,854 

81.30 
12.21 

46,483,798 
5,711,866 

84.29 

10.35 





Northeastern..  . 

2,098,923 

4.79 

2,139,058 

3.88 

Western  

746,971 

1.70 

815,425 

1  48 

43,876,552 

100.00 

55,150,147 

100.00 

THE  IRON  ORES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES      191 


Ore -consuming  Districts. — The  preceding  data  as  to  produc- 
tion, imports,  exports  etc.,  are  rendered  more  intelligible  when 
they  are  placed  in  relation  to  the  actual  ore-consuming  areas  or 
districts  of  the  United  States.  Fortunately  this  can  be  done, 
if  not  with  absolute  precision,  at  least  with  sufficiently  results 
to  be  of  industrial  value. 

From  the  steel-making  standpoint,  there  are  four  iron-ore 
consuming  regions  in  the  United  States.  These  are  as  follows: 

1.  The  Central  Region;  including  all  the  furnaces  in  Michigan, 
Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Missouri,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Ohio,  western 
Pennsylvania  and  western  New  York.     These  plants  normally 
use  Lake  Superior  ores  (plus a  little  local  ore  in  Ohio  and  Missouri). 

2.  The  North  Atlantic  Region;  including  New  England,  New 
Jersey,  eastern  New  York,  eastern  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland. 
These  plants  normally  use  local  or  imported  ores;  though  some 
Lake  ore  comes  in  at  times. 

3.  The  Southern  Region;  including  all  plants  from  Missouri  and 
Maryland  south  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.     These  plants  all  use 
local  ores. 

4.  The  Western  Region;  including  plants  in  the  Rocky  Mountain 
and   Pacific   Coast   states.     These   plants   now   use   local   ores 
entirely. 

Using  this  classification  as  the  basis,  it  is  possible  to  allot  the 
ore  production,  imports  and  exports  among  these  four  regions 
with  a  close  approach  to  accuracy.  I  have  prepared  the  fol- 
lowing table,  which  gives  the  results  of  such  allotment. 

ORE  CONSUMPTION  IN  VARIOUS  REGIONS 


1910 

1911 

1912 

Tons 

Per- 
cent 

Tons 

Per- 
cent 

Tons 

Per- 
cent 

Central  Region.  .  .  . 
North  Atlantic.  .  .  . 
Southern  Region  .  .  . 
Western  Region  .  .  . 

45,790,000 
9,466,000 
2,605,000 
868,000 

78.0 
16.0 
4.5 
1.5 

34,943,000 
7,156,000 
2,099,000 
732,000 

77.7 
15.9 
4.7 
1.7 

45,360,000 
7,765,000 
2,139,000 
795,000 

81.0 
13.8 
3.8 
1.4 

58,729,000 

100.0 

44,930,000 

100.0 

56,059,000 

100.0 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  totals  reached  in  this  'way  do  not 
agree  exactly  with  those  in  a  preceding  table  giving  estimates 
of  the  tonnage  available  for  consumption  in  the  entire  United 


192 


IRON  ORES 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     193 

States  in  different  years.  The  differences  are  due  to  small 
tonnages  which  can  not  be  precisely  allotted  without  more 
information  than  is  now  available;  and  the  possible  errors  are  too 
small,  in  any  event,  to  seriously  affect  the  value  of  the  results. 


13 


CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  DISTRICT 

Considered  either  from  the  industrial  or  the  geologic  stand- 
point, the  Lake  Superior  district  includes  portions  of  the  three 
states  which  border  on  that  lake,  together  with  part  of  the 
Canadian  Province  of  Ontario.  In  the  present  volume,  however, 
such  developments  as  have  been  made  on  the  Canadian  side  of 
the  boundary  will  be  briefly  noted  in  a  later  chapter,  while  in 
this  chapter  attention  will  be  directed  chiefly  to  that  portion 
of  the  Lake  district  which  lies  in  the  United  States. 

During  recent  years  the  Lake  Superior  district  has  produced 
about  four-fifths  of  the  entire  iron-ore  output  of  the  United 
States.  There  is  no  serious  probability  that  this  proportion  will 
decrease  much  in  the  near  future,  so  that  for  many  years  to  come 
this  region  will  be  the  most  important  source  of  our  domestic-ore 
supply. 

LOCATION  AND  GEOLOGY 

The  Lake  Superior  Ore  Ranges. — A  number  of  more  or  less 
distinct  areas  or  " ranges"  contribute  to  make  up  the  total  output 
of  the  Lake  district.  The  progress  of  development  tends  to 
change  the  classification  somewhat,  but  it  can  still  be  said 
that  five  ranges  produce  the  bulk  of  the  output.  These  are 
the  Mesabi  and  Vermillion,  located  in  Minnesota;  the  Marquette, 
entirely  in  Michigan;  and  the  Gogebic  and  Menominee,  mostly 
in  Michigan  but  extending  over  into  Wisconsin. 

In  addition  to  these  five  great  ranges,  relatively  small  ship- 
ments are  now  made  from  the  Baraboo  and  Iron  Ridge  areas  in 
southern  Wisconsin,  the  Cuyuna  range  in  Minnesota,  and  occa- 
sionally from  Spring  Valley  and  other  brown-ore  areas  in  north- 
western Wisconsin.  At  intervals,  it  may  be  noted,  small  ship- 
ments have  also  been  made  from  a  brown-ore  area  in  Iowa,  which 
reached  the  same  markets  as  the  Lake  ores,  and  is  mentioned 
here  merely  to  complete  the  record.  The  five  ranges  first 

194 


THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  DISTRICT 


195 


mentioned,  with  the  Cuyuna  and  Baraboo,  are  closely  alike 
geologically,  producing  hematite  (with  some  magnetite)  some 
pre-Cambrian  rocks;  the  Iron  Ridge  area,  however,  is  a  district 


producing  Clinton  ore  like  the  red  hematite  of  the  Birmingham 
and  other  southern  Appalachian  regions. 

The  essential  facts  concerning  the  five  principal  ranges,  to- 


196 


IRON  ORES 


gether  with  less  important  areas  in  Canada  or  elsewhere  in  the 
Lake  Superior  district,  are  embodied  in  tabular  form  as  follows: 


LAKE  SUPERIOR  IRON-ORE  RANGES 


Range 

Location 

Opened 

Production, 
opening  in  1910, 
in  long  tons 

Marquette  

Michigan  

1854 

97,861,463 

Menominee  
Gogebic 

Michigan  and  Wisconsin  .... 
Michigan  and  Wisconsin  .... 

1872 
1884 

76,390,887 
66,533,749 

Vermillion  
Mesabi  

Minnesota  
Minnesota  
Canada 

1884 
1892 
1900 

30,708,055 
226,937,775 

Baraboo  »  

Wisconsin  
Canada 

1903 
1906 

Cuyiina 

IVIinnesota 

1911 

The  grade  of  the  Lake  ores,  as  well  as  the  shape,  size  and 
position  of  the  ore  deposits,  are  largely  influenced  by  local 
geologic  and  topographic  conditions  on  the  different  ranges. 
Flat-lying  rocks,  as  on  the  Mesabi,  give  shallow  deposits  of  soft 
ore,  often  workable  as  open  cuts  by  the  steam  shovel.  Steeply 
inclined  rocks,  as  on  the  Michigan  ranges,  especially  where  later 
igneous  action  has  also  been  a  factor,  give  underground  mines 
in  harder  ore.  The  ores  now  shipped  from  the  Lake  region 
average  about  50  to  52  percent  metallic  iron  in  their  natural  or 
shipping  condition. 

General  Geology  of  the  Lake  Region. — The  Lake  Superior  iron 
region  is,  so  far  as  the  mining  geology  of  its  principal  ranges  is 
concerned,  a  district  made  up  of  igneous  and  metamorphic  rocks. 
All  of  these  are  of  pre-Cambrian  age;  and  the  major  subdivisions 
are  as  follows,  the  youngest  or  newest  series  being  at  the  top 
of  the  column. 


PRINCIPAL  GEOLOGIC  DIVISIONS  IN  LAKE  REGION 


System 


Algonkian 


Archaean . 


Series 

Keweenawan 

Huronian. . .  . 

j  Laurentian. . , 
\  Keewatin. . .  . 


Group 

Upper  Keweenawan. 
Middle  Keweenawan. 
Lower  Keweenawan. 
Upper  Huronian  or  Animikie. 
Middle  Huronian. 
Lower  Huronian. 
Not  subdivided. 
Not  subdivided. 


THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  DISTRICT 


197 


These  groups  are  essentially 
recognizable  throughout  the  dis- 
trict, though  an  apparently  un- 
necessary complexity  has  been 
introduced  by  using  different  local 
names  for  them  as  developed  in 
the  different  iron  ranges.  These 
local  sub-divisions  are  summar- 
ized from  data  by  Van  Hise  and 
Leith  on  pages  198  and  199. 

Of  the  groups  above  named, 
three  contain  iron-bearing  forma- 
tions. These  three,  in  the  order  of 
their  productive  importance  are 
the  Upper  Huronian,  the  Middle 
Huronian  and  the  Keewatin.  Of 
these  the  Upper  Huronian  pro- 
duces all  of  the  ores  of  the  Mesabi, 
Gogebic  and  Cuyuna  ranges,  and 
by  far  the  bulk  of  the  ores  from 
the  Menominee  range.  The  Mid- 
dle Huronian  produces  the  bulk 
of  the  Marquette  ores,  all  of  the 
Baraboo  output,  and  a  small  frac- 
tion of  the  Menominee  ores.  The 
Keewatin  produces  all  of  the  Ver- 
million  ores,  as  well  as  those  of 
the  Michipicoten,  Atitokan  and 
other  Ontario  districts. 

Origin  of  the  Ores.— The  fol- 
lowing statement  as  to  the  origin 
of  the  Lake  Superior  iron  ores  is 
summarized  from  the  detailed  re- 
ports by  Van  Hise  and  others,  re- 
ferred to  elsewhere. 

The  iron-bearing  formations, 
which  now  carry  the  Lake  ores,  are 
supposed  to  have  been  originally 
of  sedimentary  origin,  though 
not  exactly  of  the  usual  sedi- 
mentary type.  They  were  made 


m 


198 


IRON  ORES 

CORRELATION  OF  PRE-CAMBRIAN  ROCKS 


I 

Series  and  group 

Marquette 
district 

Menominee 
district 

Iron  River 
district 

02 

a 

Upper 

oo 

Not  identified    but 

1 

^    00 

g'i 

Middle 

probably  repre- 
sented by  part  of 

Granite  (?) 

1s 

intrusives  in  upper 

:* 

Huronian. 

« 

Lower 

Greenstone     intru- 

Quinnesec   and 

sives     and     extru- 

other  schists,  green- 

sives. 

stone   intrusives 

Michigamme  slate. 

and'extrusives.  <      Greenstone   intru- 

To  the  south  part- 

Michigamme   sives    and    extru- 

Upper     Huronian 
(Animikie  group) 

ly  replaced  by  the 
volcanic    upper- 
middle      Huronian 

("Hanbury")slate.    sives. 
Vulcan     formation,  Michigamme  slate, 
subdivided  into  the   including    Vulcan 

Clarksburg  forma- 

• Curry  iron-bearing  iron-bearing  mem- 

tion. 

member,    Brierjber. 

Bijiki    schist    (iron 

slate  member,  and 

bearing)  . 

Traders  iron-bear- 

C 

a 

DO 

Goodrich  quartzite. 

ing  member. 

a 
o 

QJ 

jjp 

00 

^ 

d 

Huronu 

Middle  Huronian 

Negaunee      forma- 
tion (chief  produc- 
tive     iron-bearing 
formation). 
Siamo  slate. 
Ajibik  quartzite. 

Quartzite;   in   most 
of  district  not  sepa- 
rated   from    upper 
part   of   Randville 
dolomite. 

Not  identified. 

—  Unconformity  — 

—  Unconformity  — 

—  Unconformity  ?  - 

Saunders      forma- 

tion (interbedded 

dolomite    and 

Lower  Huronian 

Wewe  slate. 
Kona  dolomite. 
Mesnard  quartzite. 

Randville  dolomite. 
Sturgeon  quartzite. 

quartzite;    be- 
lieved  to   be   the 
equivalent  of  the 

Randville      dolo- 

mite    and     Stur- 

geon quartzite). 

TT               f            '4- 

TT                f 

TT              f           '  + 

u  ncontormity  — 

—  Unconlormity  — 
Granites    and 

Laurentian    series  (intru- 
sive into  Keewatin). 

Granite,  syenite, 
peridotite. 

gneisses      cut      by 
granite     and     dia- 

Palmer  gneiss.         j  base  dikes. 

a 

1 

Kitchschist       and 

g 

Mona    schist,    the 

• 

latter  banded  and 

Keewatin  series 

in  a  few  places  con- 
taining    narrow 

Green  schists. 

Greenstone,   green 
schists,  and  tuffs. 

bands    of  non-pro- 

ductive   iron-bear- 

ing formation. 

THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  DISTRICT 

OF  THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  REGION 


199 


Baraboo 
district 

Mesabi 
district 

Animikie  or 
Loon  Lake 
district 

Cuyuna 
district 

Vermillion 
district 

Michipicoten 
district 

Absent. 

Absent. 

Absent. 

Absent. 

Embarrass 
granite  (intru- 
sive) . 
Diabase. 
Duluth     gab- 
bro. 

Conglomerate, 
sandstone, 
marl,  and  dia- 
base sills  (Lo- 
gan sills). 

Basic  'and 
acidic  intru- 
sive and  ex- 
t  r  u  s  i  v  e 
rocks     (Ke- 
weenawan?. 

Duluth  gabbro 
and      diabase 
sills       (Logan 
sills). 

Acidic    and 

basic  intrusive 

Quartzitc 
(upper   Huron- 
ian?). 

rocks. 
Virginia  slate. 
Biwabik  f  o  r£- 
mation      (iron 
earing   and 
productive). 
Pokegama 

Black  slate. 
Iron-bearing 
formation. 

v  irginia 
"St.  Louis" 
slate,  includ- 
ing   Deer- 
wood    iron- 
bearing 
member. 

Rove  slate. 
Gunflint      for- 
mation     (iron 
bearing,      but 
non-  p  r  o  d  u  c  - 
tive). 

Absent. 

quartzite. 

Granite,  intru- 
sive into  lower 

formations. 

Freedom     dolo- 
mite,      mainly 
dolomite,       in- 
cluding     iron- 
bearing     mem^ 
ber  in  its  lower 
horizon. 
Seeley  slate. 
Baraboo   quart- 
zite. 

Giants    Range 
granite,  intru- 
sive into  rocks 
below. 
S  e  diments 
(slate,    '  gray- 
wacke,     and 
conglomerate) 
which  are  the 
equivalent    of 
the    Knife 
Lake  slate  and 
Ogishke     con- 
glomerate    of 
the  Vermillion 
district. 

Granite       and 
greenstone,  in- 
trusive      into 
rocks  below. 
Slate,         gray- 
wacke      and 
conglomerate. 

Granites,  gran- 
ite porphyries, 
dolerites,  lam- 
prophyres,  in- 
trusive      into 
rocks  below. 
Knife   Lake 
slate. 
Agawa    forma- 
tion (iron  bear- 
ing,  but  non- 
productive). 
Ogishke      con- 
glomerate. 

Lower-middle 
H  u  r  o  n  i  a  n 
("Upper  Hur- 
onian"           of 
Coleman    and 
Willmott)  : 
Granite     and 
greens  tone, 
intrusive  into 
rocks  below. 
Dore         con- 
glomerate. 

Absent 

Granites,  rhyo- 
lites,  tuffs,  etc. 
(Laurentian?). 

Granites      and 
porphyries. 

Granites      and 
gneisses,       in- 
trusive      into 
Keewatin. 

Granites      and 
other       intru- 
sive rocks. 

Granites      and 
gneisses. 

("Lower     Hu- 

Soudan forma- 

ron  i  a  n"    of 

tion    (iron 

Coleman    and 

bearing       and 

Willmott)  : 

Greenstones, 

Green    schists, 

productive). 

Eleanor  slate. 

hornblende 

greenstones, 

Ely  greenstone 

Helen    forma- 

schists,       and 

and     mashed 

an      ellipsoid- 

tion     (iron 

porphyries. 

porphyries. 

ally        parted   bearing      and 
basic    igneous   productive). 

and        largely 

Wawa  tuff. 

volcanic  rock. 

G  r  o  s   Cap 

greenstone. 

200 


IRON  ORES 


chiefly  of  beds  of  iron  carbonate  and  iron  silicate,  both  of  which  up 
wbre  chemical  deposits  in  marine  basins.  In  their  original  form, 
these  beds  therefore  differed  from  the  iron  deposits  of  the  present 
day  chiefly  in  the  facts  that  (a)  their  iron  was  present  in  the 
ferrous  form,  while  the  ores  are  ferric  oxides;  (b)  silica  and 
carbon  dioxide  were  present  in  the  original  beds,  while  in  the  exist- 
ing ores  carbon  dioxide  is  absent  and  silica  relatively  low.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  present  ores  could  be  produced  from  the  original 
carbonates  and  silicates  by  simple  removal  of  carbon  dioxide  and 
silica,  which  would  result  in  a  relative  increase  in  the  iron. 

The  accepted  theory  as  to  the  manner  in  which  this  change  was 
effected  may  be  summarized  as  follows : 

After  their   deposition   the   original   iron-bearing  beds  were 


FIG.  26. — Cross-section  of  typical  ore  deposit  in  the  Marquette  district, 
Michigan  (U.  S.  G.  S.). 

metamorphosed  and  folded.  During  and  after  these  changes, 
percolating  waters  passing  downward  from  the  surface  produced 
changes  in  the  chemical  and  physical  character  of  the  original 
beds.  These  changes  involved  decomposition  of  the  original 
carbonate  and  siderite,  the  alteration  of  their  iron  to  the  ferric 
form,  and  the  removal  of  carbon  dioxide  and  silica.  All  of  these, 
except  the  last,  could  be  accomplished  even  by  pure  water,  given 
sufficient  time  and  freedom  of  access;  but  the  removal  of  silica 
implies  that  the  waters  which  effected  it  must  have  been  alkaline 
in  character.  As  the  rocks  of  the  region  include  both  sediments 
and  igneous  rocks  which  could  have  given  the  water  this  character- 
istic, this  offers  no  obstacle  to  the  theory  stated. 


THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  DISTRICT 


201 


On  some  of  the  ranges,  notably  the  Marquette  and  Vermillion, 
igneous  action  which  took  place  after  the  ore  deposits  had  been 
formed  (as  above  outlined)  has  effected  changes  in  the  character 
of  the  ores,  producing  magnetities  as  distinct  from  the  hematite 
which  is  the  normal  form  in  the  other  ranges. 

The  grade  of  the  ores,  and  the  shape,  size  and  position  of  the 
ore  deposits  are  influenced  by  local  conditions  on  the  different 
ranges.  Flat-lying  rocks,  as  on  the  Mesabi,  give  shallow  de- 
posits of  soft  ore,  workable  by  the  shovel.  Steeply  inclined 
rocks,  as  on  the  older  ranges,  give  underground  mines, 
in  steeply  dipping  ore-bodies  often  of  quite  irregular  form. 
These  facts  are  well  shown  in  figures  8,  9,  10,  25,  26  and  27,  taken 


Shale  bed 


el 


FIG.  27. — Cross-section     of 


Illinois     mine,     Baraboo    range,     Wisconsin. 
(Weidman.) 


from  various  reports  by  Van  Hise,  Leith  and  others,  which  give 
cross-sections  of  typical  ore  deposits  on  various  ranges. 

Mining  and  Concentration  of  Lake  Ores. — On  almost  all  of 
the  Lake  ranges  mining  was  originally  started  in  open  cuts  along 
the  outcrop  of  prominent  ore-bodies.  On  the  Mesabi  range, 
where  the  ore-bodies  are  flat-lying  and  relatively  shallow,  open- 
cut  mining  can  be  carried  on  economically  in  many  cases,  and 
about  two-thirds  of  the  Mesabi  output  comes  from  open- cut 
mines.  The  ore-bodies  on  the  other  ranges  dip  at  steep  angles, 
so  that  the  cover  soon  becomes  too  heavy  for  anything  except 
underground  mining. 

Until  recently  all  of  the  Lake  Superior  ores  were  shipped  and 


202  IRON  ORES 

used  as  mined,  without  any  concentration  or  other  treatment; 
and  the  greater  portion  of  the  output  is  still  marketed  in  its 
natural  condition.  The  growing  scarcity  of  high-grade  ores, 
however,  has  led  to  attempts  to  improve  grade  by  treatment, 
and  developments  along  two  distinct  lines  are  now  in  progress. 
The  sandy  ores  of  the  western  portion  of  the  Mesabi  range  are 
now  being  washed  to  raise  their  iron  grade  and  reduce  silica; 
while  some  of  the  Canadian  ores  are  roasted  to  lower  their  high 
sulphur  content.  Drying  has  been  introduced  at  a  few  mines 
very  recently. 

As  the  average  grade  of  the  district  falls,  concentration  will 
become  more  and  more  a  necessity.  If  there  were  no  competitive 
ores  in  sight,  it  would  of  course  always  be  possible  to  ship  Lake 
ores  to  Pittsburgh  furnaces,  and  the  result  of  lowered  grade  would 
simply  be  an  increase  in  the  cost  of  making  pig  iron.  But  as  it  is, 
there  are  abundant  supplies  of  ore  in  Texas,  Cuba  and  elsewhere 
which  will  become  available  in  Pittsburgh  as  soon  as  the  average 
Lake  grade  falls  a  little  lower  than  its  present  level.  Under  these 
circumstances,  it  will  be  necessary,  if  these  eastern  markets  are 
still  to  be  held  by  Lake  ores,  to  keep  the  shipping  grade  up  to  a 
point  which  will  place  them  on  at  least  a  competitive  basis  as 
regards  other  ores. 

Composition  and  Grade  of  Lake  Ores. — In  attempting  to 
summarize  briefly  the  chief  facts  concerning  the  mineral  char- 
acter, composition  and  grade  of  Lake  Superior  ores,  the  diffi- 
culty does  not  arise  from  lack  of  data,  but  from  their  abundance. 
Fortunately  Van  Hise  and  Leith,  in  a  recent  publication,  have 
furnished  a  series  of  averages  which  are  of  great  value  in  the 
present  connection. 

Practically  all  of  the  ore  now  shipped  from  the  Lake  Superior 
ranges  is  hematite,  a  very  small  percentage  of  the  total  output 
being  magnetite,  which  comes  from  certain  mines  on  the  Mar- 
quette  range.  But  it  must  be  noted  that  the  hematite  is,  to  a 
very  large  extent,  more  or  less  hydrated,  and  that  in  places  it 
carries  sufficient  combined  water  to  be  properly  called  a  brown 
ore. 

The  following  data  on  the  average  composition  of  the  total 
shipments  of  Lake  Superior  iron  ores  for  the  year  1909,  with  the 
range  in  various  constituents,  are  quoted  from  Monograph 
LII,  U.  S.  Geological  Survey. 


THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  DISTRICT 


203 


The  ores  as  shipped  contained  moisture  ranging  from  0.50 
percent  to  17.40  percent,  the  average  moisture  for  the  total 
shipments  being  11.28  percent.  After  drying  at  212°  F.,  the 
total  shipments  gave  on  analysis  the  following  average  and 
range : 

Maximum 

65 . 34  percent 
7.20 

40.77 
5.67 
4.96 


Constituent  Minimum 

Metallic  iron 35 . 74  percent 

Manganese 0 . 00 

Silica 2.50 

Alumina 0.16 

Lime 0 . 00 

Magnesia 0 . 00 

Sulphur 0.003 

Phosphorus 0 . 008 

Loss  on  ignition 0 . 00 


Average 

58.45  percent 
0.71 
7.67 
2.23 
0.54 
0.55 
0.06 
0.091 
4.12 


3.98 

1.87 

1.28 

10.00 


In  order  that  the  general  differences  between  the  ores  of  the 
various  ranges  may  be  brought  out,  the  averages  for  1909  ship- 
ments, by  ranges,  are  taken  from  the  same  publication  and 
assembled  in  the  table  following : 


Marquette 

Menominee 

c 

ED 

,0 

0 

o 

5 

,_ 

0> 

Constituent 

! 

'§ 

t 

1 

N 

1 

| 

o 

^ 

a 

% 

o 
O 

gf 

§ 

1 

£ 

M 
0 

0 

fl 

5> 

02 

1 

0 

Ui 

s 

a> 

Moisture  (loss 
at  212°  F.) 

12.27* 

5.06 

11.30 

9.52 

13.50      8.42 

8.34 

9.76 

6.67 

Average  analyses  of  ores  dried  at  212°  F. 


Metallic  iron.  .  :  . 
Manganese  
Silica  

58.83 
0.82 
6.80 

63.79 
0.11 
4.90 

59.62 
0.77 
8.16 

57.05 
n.  d. 
10.16 

58.60 
0.71 
10.20 

54.79 
0.80 
7.71 

54.35 
0.30 

8.77 

54.70 
0.08 
6.89 

52  13 
0.19 
16.77 

Alumina  
Lime  
Magnesia  

2.23 
0.32 
0.32 
0  069 

2.93 
0.23 
0.05 

1.92 
0.37 
0.28 
0  034 

2.18 
n.  d. 
n.  d. 
n.  d. 

1.05 
1.15 
0.46 
0  012 

2.50 
2.63 
2.16 
0.071 

3.07 
1.34 
1.49 
0.056 

4.17 
1.80 
2.86 
0.173 

1.41 
1.31 
2.70 
0.012 

Phosphorus  .  .  . 
Loss  on  ignition 

0.062 
4.72 

0.052 
0.85 

0.060 
2.82 

0.105 
2.31 

0.211 
.25 

0.495 
4.11 

0.404 
5.74 

0.319 
5.20 

0.074 
2.52 

In  both  of  the  preceding  tables,  the  analyses  are  quoted  on  a 
dry  basis;  but  since  in  each  case  the  moisture  lost  at  or  below 
212°  F.  is  also  given,  it  is  possible  to  calculate  from  these  data  the 
natural  or  shipping  grade  of  the  ores. 

Changes  in  Average  Ore  Grades. — For  comparative  industrial 
purposes,  however,  we  have  available  a  still  more  valuable  series 
of  data,  prepared  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Lake  Superior  Iron  Ore 


204 


IRON  ORES 


Association.  These  statistics,  the  more  general  portions  of  which 
are  summarized  in  the  tables  following,  cover  the  average  grades 
of  ore  from  each  of  the  ranges,  over  a  series  of  years. 

Taking  first  the  matter  of  iron  content  the  following  results  are 
shown,  all  iron  being  stated  on  a  natural  basis. 

AVERAGE  IRON  GRADE  OF  LAKE  ORES,  1902-1912 
Year  Mesabi  range  Old  ranges  All  ranges 

1902  56. 07  percent  56.40  56.22 

1903  55.19  55.92  55.50 

1904  55.45  55.76  55.58 

1905  54.24  55.19  54.61 

1906  53.44  54.63  53.87 

1907  53.11  54.01  53.40 

1908  52.66  53.63  52.96 

1909  51.49  53.49  52.11 

1910  51.42  53.52  52.07 

1911  51.18  53.62  51.89 

1912  51.20  53.71  51.96 

1913  

1914  ....  

1915  

The  fairly  steady  decrease  in  grade  from  both  the  Mesabi  and 
the  older  ranges,  from  1902  until  a  few  years  ago,  is  very  notice- 
able. During  the  past  few  years  this  fall  in  grade  has  stopped, 
momentarily  at  least. 

Further  facts  of  interest,  relating  to  the  phosphorus  content 
of  the  Lake  ores,  are  brought  out  by  the  following  table. 

CHANGES  IN  PHOSPHORUS  CONTENT,     1902-1912 


Year 

Phosphorus  content  of  B( 

jssemer  ores        Percentage,  Bessemer,  total  tonnage 

Mesabi 

Old  ranges 

All  ranges 

Mesabi 

Old  ranges 

All  ranges 

1902 

0.03948 

0.04097 

0  .  03995 

80.6 

47.4 

64.9 

1903 

0.04044 

0.04043 

0.04043 

74.9 

49.9 

63.7 

1904 

0.04010 

0.04035 

0.04018 

79.9 

47.3 

65.1 

1905 

0.04215 

0.04106 

0.04183 

70.1 

46.3 

60.9 

1906 

0.04408 

0.04204 

0.04354 

69.0 

44  A 

60.2 

1907 

0.04558 

0.04060 

0.04437 

63.2 

42.1 

56.4 

1908 

0.04459 

0.04174    . 

0.04387 

57.2 

43.6 

53.0 

1909 

0.04528 

0.04226 

0.04446 

48.0 

38.8 

45.1 

1910 

0  .  04608 

0.04132 

0  .  04472 

46.3 

41.5 

44.8 

1911 

0  .  04620 

0.03881 

0.04438 

49.3 

39.9 

46.6 

1912 

0.04685 

0.04000 

0.04504 

45.3 

37.2 

41.9 

1913 



1914 

1915 

THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  DISTRICT  205 

Along  with  the  decrease  in  iron  content,  therefore,  the  phos- 
phorus content  of  the  Mesabi  Bessemer  ores  has  increased  quite 
noticeably.  What  is  still  more  striking,  however,  is  the  change  in 
steel-making  processes  indicated  by  the  last  three  columns  of  the 
preceding  table,  which  show  the  rise  in  the  percentage  of  non- 
Bessemer  ores  brought  down  each  year. 

Transportation  and  Markets. — The  Lake  ores  now  supply  all 
the  furnaces  in  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Illinois  and 
Indiana,  as  well  as  those  in  western  New  York,  western  Penn- 
sylvania and  northern  Ohio.  A  line  drawn  from  Buffalo 
through  Johnstown  to  Ironton  and  then  northwest  to  Chicago 
will  be  about  the  eastern  and  southern  boundary  of  the  strictly 
Lake  market.  Outside  of  this,  however,  is  a  zone  where  Lake 
ores  are  sold  and  used  in  competition  with  local  or  imported  ores. 
In  this  zone,  conditions  in  the  ore  and  metal  markets  determine 
to  what  extent,  in  any  given  year,  Lake  ores  can  be  used.  The 
extreme  limits  of  shipment  in  this  direction  are,  it  is  believed, 
St.  Louis,  Lowmoor  (Va.),  and  Bethlehem,  Pa.;  and  these  are 
not  to  be  regarded  as  normal  Lake  markets.  But,  even  setting 
aside  all  of  the  competitive  zone,  the  area  in  which  the  Lake  ores 
furnish  the  total  supply  concludes  the  bulk  of  the  steel  plants  of 
the  country,  and  over  85  percent  of  our  present  steel  output 
comes  from  Lake  ores. 

In  order  to  reach  these  markets,  the  ores  from  the  Lake  ranges 
have  to  face  a  serious  transportation  problem.  A  relatively 
small  portion  of  the  total  tonnage  travels  to  its  destination  by 
all-rail  routes,  but  by  far  the  greater  portion  goes  by  rail  to  a 
harbor  on  Lake  Superior  or  Lake  Michigan;  and  is  taken  by  ore- 
carrying  boats  either  down  Lake  Michigan  to  Chicago  or  Gary, 
or  through  Lake  Huron  to  ports  on  the  lower  lakes.  For  most  of 
the  tonnage,  even  these  lower  lake  ports  are  not  ultimate  destina- 
tions, but  a  further  rail  haul  is  required  to  place  the  ore  at  the 
furnaces.  The  total  distances  involved,  rail  and  water,  range 
from  some  three  hundred  miles  for  ores  from  the  Menominee 
range  to  Chicago,  up  to  over  one  thousand  miles  for  ores  from  the 
Vermillion  and  Mesabi  ranges  to  Pittsburgh  or  Buffalo. 

It  will  be  of  interest  to  take  up  this  question  on  a  quantitative 
basis,  so  as  to  get  some  idea  of  the  relative  tonnages  which  take 
the  different  routes,  and  of  the  relative  costs  at  which  they  are 
handled.  In  order  to  clear  the  ground,  we  may  first  of  all  dis- 


206 


IRON  ORES 


pose  of  the  all-rail  tonnage.  This  normally  amounts  to  one 
million  tons  or  less,  and  is  distributed  chiefly  to  furnaces  in  the 
Lake  Superior  states,  though  occasional  shipments  are  made  all- 
rail  to  more  distant  points.  The  relative  importance  of  this 
tonnage  may  be  seen  by  considering  that  total  shipments  from 
the  Lake  ranges  in  1910  amounted  to  43,442,397  tons,  of  which 
only  813,639  tons  traveled  all-rail  to  their  destination.  The 


Heavy  doited  line  indicates  area 
within  which  lake  ores  are  normally 
the  sole  source  oF  supply. 


\0 


\  _ 

— X—  /  )PENN/ 

'LUNOISi,ND,ANAJ      OHI°    11 /- 

sj 

W.  V I  R^/ 

MissouRfvC       /;,,-0  ry        z^-^  y 


FIG.  28. — Map  of  market  area  for  Lake  Superior  ores. 

remaining  42,628,758  tons  used  one  of  the  combined  rail   and 
water  routes. 

The  first  link  in  the  combined  routes  is  in  every  case  a  rail 
haul  from  the  mines  to  a  harbor  on  Lake  Superior  or  Lake 
Michigan.  The  routes  available  from  the  different  ranges,  the 
harbors  usually  shipped  from,  and  the  present  rates  from  mine 
to  harbor  are  shown  in  the  following  table: 


THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  DISTRICT 


207 


Range  Railroad  to  harbor 

Vermillion.  Duluth  and  Iron  Range. 
Mesabi.  Duluth  and  Iron  Range. 
Mesabi.  Duluth,  Missabe  and 

Northern. 

Mesabi,          Great  Northern. 
Gogebic.        Wisconsin  Central. 
Gogebic.        Chicago  &  Northwestern. 
Menominee.  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St. 

Paul. 

Menominee.  Chicago  &  Northwestern. 
Marquette.  Lake  Superior  &  Ishpem- 

ing. 

Marquette.  Chicago  &  Northwestern. 
Marquette.   Duluth,    South    Shore    & 

Atlantic. 


Harbor 

Two  Harbors,  Minn 
Two  Harbors,  Minn 
Duluth,  Minn. 

Superior,  Wis. 
Ashland,  Wis. 
Ashland,  Wis. 
Escanaba,  Mich. 

Escanaba,  Mich. 
Marquette,  Mich. 

Escanaba,  Mich. 
Marquette,  Mich. 


Rate  per 
ton,  mine 
to  harbor 

Average 
haul, 
i-niles 

..    0.60 

70-90 

.     0.60 

65 

0.60 

80 

0.60 

120 

0.40 

50 

0.40 

40 

0.40 

40-60 

0.40 

45-83 

0.25 

12-36 

0.40 

45-70 

0.25 

12-35 

Of  the  railroads  above  mentioned  as  handling  ore  traffic 
between  the  mines  and  the  harbors,  three  are  owned  by  iron 
companies,  while  the  others  are  parts  of  the  Great  Northern, 
Canadian  Pacific,  St.  Paul  and  Chicago  Northwestern  systems. 
The  three  roads  controlled  by  iron  companies  are  the  Lake 
Superior  and  Ishpeming,  controlled  by  the  Cleveland-Cliffs 
Company;  and  the  Duluth  &  Iron  Range,  and  Duluth  Missabe 
&  Northern,  controlled  by  the  Oliver  Iron  Mining  Company. 
Owing  to  the  close  connection  of  the  Great  Northern  Railway, 
in  ownership  and  management,  with  heavy  ore-land  holdings, 
it  might  also  be  considered  in  this  class. 

From  the  harbors  down  the  Lakes  the  ore  is  handled  in 
freighters  designed  specially  for  this  traffic.  Part  of  the  ship- 
ping employed  in  this  work  is  owned  or  controlled  by  iron  com- 
panies; part  is  entirely  independent.  The  rates  vary  from 
season  to  season,  but  the  usual  range  of  late  years,  from  various 
upper  lake  harbors  to  ports  on  the  lower  lakes  has  been  between 
sixty  and  seventy-five  cents  per  ton,  the  average  freight  on  all 
ore  tonnage  handled  during  the  past  five  years  being  close  to  the 
higher  figure  named.  The  following  tables,  quoted  from  the 
Iron  Trade  Review,  give  data  bearing  on  the  relative  amounts  of 
the  tonnage  handled  at  various  points  of  shipment  and  receipt 
during  recent  years.  Receipts  at  Chicago  and  Gary  account  for 
practically  all  of  the  difference  between  the  two  sets  of  figures. 


208 


IRON  ORES 


SHIPMENTS  OF  LAKE  SUPERIOR  IRON  ORE,  1907-1912 


Shipping  port 

1907 

1908 

1909 

1910 

1911 

1912 

Escanaba,  Mich.... 
Marquette,  Mich.  . 
Ashland,  Wis  
Two  Harbors, 
Minn  
Superior,  Wis  
Duluth,  Minn.  .  .  . 

5,761,988 
3,013,826 
3,436,867 

8,188,906 
7,440,386 
13,448,736 

3,351,502 

1,487,487 
2,513,670 

5,702,237 
3,564,030 

8,808,168 

5,747,801 
2,909,451 
3,834,207 

9,181,132 
6,540,505 
13,470,503 

4,959,726 
3,248,516 
4,094,374 

8,271,177 
8,414,799 
13,640,166 

4,278,445 
2,200,380 
2,429,290 

6,367,537 
9,920,490 
6,934,269 

5,234,655 
3,296,761 
4,797,101 

9,370,969 
14,240,714 
10,495,577 

Total  by  Lake.  . 
Total  by  rail  

41,290,709 
975,9^9 

25,427,094 
587,893 

41,683,599 
903,270 

42,628,758 
813,639 

32,130,411 
662,719 

47,435,777 
785,769 

Total  

42,266,668 

26,014,987 

42,586,869 

43,442,397 

32,793,130 

48,221,546 

IRON-ORE  RECEIPTS  AT  LAKE  MICHIGAN  PORTS,  1909-1912 


Port 

1909 

1910 

1911 

1912 

Elk  Rapids,  Mich 

46,037 

60,857 

26,814 

47  947 

East  Jordan,  Mich  
Milwaukee,  Wis 

18,623 
178,720 

37,910 
121,446 

36,232 
109,255 

42,878 
138,065 

Gary,  Ind  

1,921,813 

1,775,880 

1,302,745 

2,088,327 

Indiana  Harbor,  Ind  
South  Chicago,  111  
Boyne  City,  Mich  
Fruitport,  Mich 

4,673,818 
37,062 
53,761 

287,172 
5,080,679 
50,355 
37,785 

365,312 
3,685,100 
33,000 

514,748 
5,480,105 
45,000 

Total  .  . 

6.929.831 

7.452.084 

5.558.458 

8.357.070 

IRON-ORE  RECEIPTS  AT  LAKE  ERIE  PORTS,  1907-1912 


Port 

1907 

1908 

1909 

1910 

1911 

1912 

Toledo  
Sandusky  
Huron  
Lorain  
Cleveland 

1,314,140 
83,043 

680,553 

1,374,224 
11,088 
243,082 
2,796,856 
6,051,342 
1,734,277 
8,056,941 
7,007,834 
1,235,057 
5,002,235 
159,889 

1,225,202 

197,951 
2,884,738 
6,344,943 
1,516,434 
9,620,638 
6,309,548 
942,592 
4,704,439 
296,412 

493,345 

223,947 
2,937,605 
4,584,211 
666,365 
6,359,131 
6,931,278 
289,400 
2,802,976 
243,292 

1,405,023 

540,586 
3,771,350 
7,914,836 
1,810,381 
8,158,080 
7,839,831 
547,067 
5,060,642 
418,057 

971,430 
2,621,025 
6,495,998 
2,437,649 
7,521,859 
5,875,937 
2,294,239 
5,580,438 

213,377 
2,286,388 
4,240,816 
1,518,961 
3,012,064 
4,798,631 
828,602 
2,835,099 
112,561 

Fairport 

Ashtabula  
Conneaut  
Erie  
Buffalo  

Detroit  

153,157 

Total  

35,348,915 

20,527,052 

33,672,825 

34,042,897 

25,531,550 

37,465,853 

Of  the  ore  which  reaches  ports  on  Lake  Erie,  during  the  seven 
months  which  comprise  the  navigation  season  of  an  ordinary 
year,  a  certain  portion  is  used,  as  at  Lorain,  Cleveland  and  Buffalo 
in  strictly  local  furnaces.  But  the  greater  portion  of  the  tonnage 
received  is  passed  on  by  rail  to  more  distant  furnaces  at  Youngs- 


THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  DISTRICT  209 

town,  Pittsburgh  and  elsewhere.  Heavy  stocks  of  ore  are  held 
at  the  lower  lake  ports  at  the  close  of  navigation,  and  though 
these  are  drawn  down,  of  course,  during  the  winter  and  early 
spring,  the  stocks  still  on  hand  at  the  opening  of  navigation  are 
still  very  large.  On  December  1,  1912,  for  example,  the  Iron 
Trade  Review  reports  stocks  held  at  Lower  Lake  ports  as  being 
9,497,168  tons;  while  on  May  1,  1913,  the  stocks  still  on  hand 
then  amounted  to  5,706,477  tons. 

History  and  Statistics. — The  first  discovery  of  iron  ore  in  the 
Lake  Superior  district  was  made  in  1844,  on  what  is  now  the 
Marquette  range,  by  a  government  surveying  party.  Within  a 
year  attempts  to  smelt  the  ore  locally  were  under  way,  while  as 
early  as  1850  small  test  shipments  were  made  to  a  Pennsylvania 
furnace.  Development  was  retarded,  however,  by  the  lack  of 
transportation  facilities.  These  were  improved  by  the  opening, 
in  1855  of  a  ship  canal  at  the  Sault,  and  in  1857  of  a  railroad 
from  the  mines  to  Lake  Superior.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
Henry  Clay  ridiculed  the  Sault  canal  project,  just  as  at  a  later 
date  another  Kentucky  senator  immortalized  himself  by  an 
asinine  speech  regarding  the  future  of  Duluth. 

For  thirty  years  the  Marquette  range  furnished  all  the  Lake  ore, 
reaching  shipments  of  about  one  million  tons  a  year  in  the  decade 
beginning  in  1870.  The  second  of  the  ranges  to  be  opened  was 
the  Menominee,  first  shipping  in  1887;  followed  by  the  Gogebic 
and  Vermillion  in  1884.  The  four  ranges  so  far  named  are  often 
called  the  Old  Ranges,  in  distinction  from  the  Mesabi,  which 
did  not  commence  shipping  until  1892.  This  last  of  the  impor- 
tant ranges  was,  however,  the  greatest  of  all;  and  within  four 
years  of  its  opening  had  become  the  leading  range  in  point  of 
annual  output,  a  position  it  has  since  retained. 

Within  the  past  decade  two  far  less  important  ranges — theBara- 
boo  and  Cuyuna — have  been  developed  to  the  shipping  point. 

The  following  table  reprinted  from  the  annual  official  volume 
on  Mineral  Resources  of  the  United  States  for  1912,  shows  the 
total  production  of  the  Lake  Superior  district  by  ranges.  The 
figures  prior  to  1872  were  collected  by  A.  P.  Swineford,  editor 
Marquette  Mining  Journal;  those  for  1872  to  1877,  inclusive,  are 
from  the  Michigan  Mineral  Statistics;  those  from  1878  to  1888, 
inclusive,  were  collected  by  W.  J.  Stevens;  and  the  later  figures 
were  collected  by  the  United  States  Geological  Survey. 

14 


210 


IRON  ORES 


PRODUCTION  OF  LAKE   SUPERIOR   IRON   ORE,   1854-1912,   BY   RANGES,   IN 

LONG  TONS 


Year 

Marquette 

Menomi- 
nee 

Gogebic 

Vermillion 

Mesabi 

Cuyuna 

Total 

1864.\ 

3  112  209 

3  112  209 

1869  J 
1870 

859  507 

859  507 

1871 

813  984 

813  984 

1872 

948  553 

.. 

948  553 

1  87*} 

1  195  234 

1  195  234 

1  874 

899  934 

899  934 

1  87^ 

881  166 

881  166 

1  87fi 

993  311 

993  311 

1  077 

1  014  754 

10  375 

1  025  129 

1878 

1  033  082 

78  028 

1  111  110 

1879 

1  130  019 

245  672 

1  375  691 

1880 

1  384  010 

524,735 

1  908  745 

1  579  834 

726  671 

2  306  505 

1  889 

829  394 

1  136  018 

2  965  412 

1  88*^ 

305  364 

1  047  863 

2  353  227 

1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 

,559,912 
,430,862 
,627,383 
,851,717 
1  918  672 

895,634 
690,435 
880,006 
1,199,343 
1,191,097 

1,022 
119,590 
756,237 
1,285,265 
1,433,689 

62,122 
227,075 
307,948 
394,910 
511,953 

2,518,690 
2,467,962 
3,571,574 
4,731,235 
5,055,411 

1889 

2  631  026 

1  876  157 

2,147,923 

864,508 

7  519  614 

1890 

2  863  848 

2  274  192 

2,914,081 

891,910 

8  944  031 

1891 

2  778  482 

1  856,124 

2,041,754 

945,105 

7  621  465 

1892 
1893 

2,848,552 
2  064  827 

2,402,195 
1  563,049 

3,058,176 
1,466,815 

1,226,220 
815,735 

29,245 
684,194 

9,564,388 
6  594  620 

1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 
1901 
1902 

1,935,379 
1,982,080 
2,418,846 
2,673,785 
2,987,930 
3,634,596 
3,945,068 
3,597,089 
3,734,712 

1,255,255 
1,794,970 
1,763,235 
1,767,220 
2,275,664 
3,281,422 
3,680,738 
3,697,408 
4,421,250 

1,523,451 
2,625,475 
2,100,398 
2,163,088 
2,552,205 
2,725,648 
3,104,033 
3,041,869 
3,683,792 

,055,229 
,027,103 
,200,907 
,381,278 
,125,538 
,643,984 
,675,949 
1,805,996 
2,057,532 

1,913,234 
2,839,350 
3,082,973 
4,220,151 
4,837,971 
6,517,305 
8,158,450 
9,303,541 
13,080,118 

7,682,548 
10,268,978 
10,566,359 
12,205,522 
13,779,308 
17,802,955 
20,564,238 
21,445,903 
26,977  404 

1903 
1904 

3,686,214 
2,465,448 

4,093,320 
2,871,130 

3,422,341 
2,132,898 

1,918,584 
1,056,430 

13,452,812 
11,672,405 

26,573,271 
20,198,311 

1905 
1906 
1907 

3,772,645 
4,070,914 
4  167  810 

4,472,630 
4,962,357 
4,779,592 

3,344,551 
3,484,023 
3,609,519 

1,578,626 
1,794,186 
1,724,217 

20,156,566 
23,564,891 
27,245,411 



33,325,018 
37,876,371 
41  526  579 

1908 
1909 
1910 
1911 
1912 

3,309,917 
4,291,967 
4,631,427 
3,743,145 
3,545,012 

2,904,011 
4,789,362 
4,983,729 
4,062,778 
4,465,466 

3,241,931 
3,807,157 
4,746,818 
3,099,197 
3,926,632 

927,206 
1,097,444 
1,390,360 
1,336,938 
1,457,273 

17,725,014 
27,877,705 
30,576,409 
23,126,943 
32,604,756 

181,224 
369,739 

28,108,079 
41,863,635 
46,328,743 
35,550,225 
46,368,878 

Total. 

105,149,620 

84,919,131 

73,559,578 

33,502,266 

282,669,474 

550,963 

580,351,032 

The  following  table  shows  the  total  quantity  of  iron  ore 
shipped  from  the  Lake  Superior  district  since  1854,  the  date  of 
the  opening  of  the  Marquette  range,'  the  oldest  of  the  Lake  Su- 
perior ranges.  This  table  gives  the  shipments  as  collected  by 


THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  DISTRICT 


211 


the  Iron  Trade  Review  and  is  inserted  for  comparison  with  the 
table  giving  the  total  production  of  the  Lake  Superior  district, 
without  regard  to  shipments : 

SHIPMENTS  OF  LAKE   SUPERIOR  ORES,    1854-1912,   IN  LONG   TONS 


Year 


Quantity  Year 


Quantity 


Year 


Quantity 


1854 

3,000 

1874.  .  . 

919,557 

1894 

7,748,932 

1855  

1,449 

1875.  .  . 

891,257 

1895.  .  . 

10,429,037 

1856  

36,343 

1876... 

992,764 

1896... 

9,934,828 

1857  

25,646 

1877.  .  . 

1,015,087 

1897... 

•12,469,638 

1858  

15,876 

1878... 

l,llljllO 

1898  .  .  . 

14,024,673 

1859  

68,832 

1879... 

1,375,691 

1899... 

18,251,804 

1860  

114,401 

1880.  .  . 

1,908,745 

1900... 

19,059,393 

1861  

49,909 

1881  .  .  . 

2,306,505 

1901  .  .  . 

20,589,237 

1862  

124,169 

1882  .  .  . 

2,965,412 

1902  .  .  . 

27,571,121 

1863  

203,055 

1883.  .. 

2,353,288 

1903... 

24,289,878 

1864 

243,127 

1884. 

2,518,692 

1904. 

21,822,839 

1865.. 

236,208 

1885.  .  . 

2,466,372 

1905.  .  . 

34,384,116 

1866  

278,796 

1886... 

3,568,022 

1906... 

38,565,762 

1867 

473,567 

1887 

4,730,577 

1907. 

42,266,668 

1868  

491,449 

1888... 

5,063,693 

1908... 

26,014^987 

1869  

617,444 

1889  .  .  . 

7,292,754 

1909... 

42,586,869 

1870 

830,940 

1890. 

9,012,379 

1910. 

43,442,397 

1871  

779,607 

1891... 

7,062,233 

1911... 

32,793,130 

1872  

900,901 

1892... 

9,069,556 

1912... 

48,221,546 

1873 

1,162,458 

1893. 

6,060,492 

Total 

573,808,218 

Ore  Production  by  Ranges. — During  1912  the  Mesabi  range 
produced  over  two-thirds  of  the  entire  Lake  Superior  output,  a 
proportion  which  has  been  approximately  maintained  since  1905. 
The  Mesabi  output  of  1912,  it  may  be  noted,  accounted  for  con- 
siderably over  half  the  total  American  production.  The  other 
ranges  may  appear  small  compared  to  this,  but  some  idea  of  their 
importance  can  be  gained  if  we  note  that  both  the  Menominee  and 
Gogebic  produced  more  ore  in  1912  than  the  state  of  Alabama;  and 
that  even  the  Vermillion  surpassed  New  York. 

Publications  on  the  Lake  Superior  District. — At  different  times 
during  the  past  thirty  years,  various  portions  of  the  Lake  Superior 
district  have  been  examined  and  reported  on  in  more  or  less  de- 
tail by  six  official  Geological  Surveys,  maintained  respectively 
by  the  United  States  and  Canadian  governments,  and  Michigan, 


212  IRON  ORES 

Wisconsin,  Minnesota  and  Ontario.  In  addition,  several  of  the 
mining  companies,  notably  the  Oliver  and  Cleveland-Cliffs,  have 
maintained  geologic  surveys.  These  private  organizations, 
being  placed  in  the  field  chiefly  to  secure  actual  results,  have  left 
little  published  records  of  their  work.  The  official  surveys,  how- 
ever, not  being  limited  as  to  space  or  time,  have  published  largely, 
several  hundred  reports  and  papers  being  listed;  and  since  the 
various  organizations  managed  to  differ  on  many  important 
points,  the  literature  of  Lake  Superior  geology  contains  records 
of  some  of  the  most  interesting  cat-fights  known  to  American 
science.  In  the  present  volume  there  is,  of  course,  not  sufficient 
space  to  even  catalogue  all  of  these  valuable  contributions. 

The  following  list  gives  the  titles  of  the  various  reports  issued 
by  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  which  cover  the  geology 
and  iron  resources  of  this  region : 


BAYLEY,    W.    S.     The    Menominee    Iron-bearing    District    of    Michigan. 

Monograph  XLVI,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey.     513  pp.     1904. 
CLEMENTS,   J.    M.     The  Vermillion   Iron-bearing   District  of   Minnesota. 

Monograph  XLV,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey.     463  pp.     1903. 
CLEMENTS,  J.  M.,  SMYTH,  H.  L.,  BAYLEY,  W.  S.,  and  VAN  HISE,  C.  R.     The 

Crystal  Falls  Iron-bearing  District  of  Michigan.     Monograph  XXXVI, 

U.  S.  Geol.  Survey.     512  pp.     1899. 
IRVING,  R.  D.,  and  VAN  HISE,  C.  R.     The  Penokee  Iron-bearing  Series  of 

Michigan  and  Wisconsin.     Monograph  XIX,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey.     534 

pp.     1892. 
LEITH,  C.  K.     The  Mesabi  Iron-bearing  District  of  Minnesota.     Monograph 

XLIII,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey.     316  pp.     1903. 

VAN  HISE,  C.  R.,  BAYLEY,  W.  S.,  and  SMYTH,  H.  L.     The  Marquette  Iron- 
bearing  District  of  Michigan,  with  Atlas.     Monograph  XXVIII,  U.  S. 

Geol  Survey  608  pp.     1897. 
VAN  HISE.,  C.  R.,  and  LEITH,  C.  K.     The  Geology  of  the  Lake  Superior 

Region.     Monograph  LII,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey.     641  pp.     1911. 


The  series  above  noted  comprises  about  thirty-six  hundred 
quarto  pages,  and  furnishes  a  fair  summary  of  the  more  important 
facts  relative  to  the  geology  of  the  Lake  Superior  district. 

As  for  the  engineering  and  industrial  problems  which  have 
arisen  and  been  solved  during  the  development  of  the  Lake  dis- 
trict, numerous  reports  and  articles  are  to  be  found  in  the  trans- 
actions of  the  Lake  Superior  Mining  Institute  and  the  American 
Institute  of  Mining  Engineers;  and  in  the  files  of  the  Iron  Trade 


THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  DISTRICT  213 

Review  and  the  Iron  Age.  The  following  brief  list  contains  the 
titles  of  a  few  publications  which  have  a  special  value  in  connec- 
tion with  the  industrial  history  and  development  of  the  region. 

BROOKS,  T.  B.  Iron  Regions  of  the  Upper  Peninsula  of  Michigan.  Reports 
Michigan  Geological  Survey,  vol.  I,  pp.  1-319.  1873.  Invaluable 
data  on  early  history,  smelting  and  mining  methods,  etc. 

CROWELL,  B.,  and  MURRAY,  C.  B.  The  Iron  Ores  of  Lake  Superior.  186 
pages.  1911.  Covers  summary  of  geology,  etc.,  but  particularly 
methods  of  sampling,  analyses,  prices,  etc. 

FINLAY,  J.  R.  Report  on  Appraisal  of  Mining  Properties  of  Michigan.  65 
pages.  1911.  Published  by  Michigan  Tax  Commissioners. 

HURD,  R.  Iron-ore  Manual,  Lake  Superior  District.  162  pages.  1911. 
Covers  particularly  prices,  sampling,  analyses,  etc. 

MUSSEY,  H.  R.  Combination  in  the  Mining  Industry;  a  Study  of  Concen- 
tration in  Lake  Superior  Iron-ore  Production.  Vol.  23,  Columbia 
University  Studies  in  Political  Science.  167  pages.  1905. 

THE  CLINTON  ORES  OF  SOUTHERN  WISCONSIN 

At  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  it  was  noted  that  one  district 
in  Wisconsin  produced  ore  different  in  every  way  from  the  Lake 
ranges  proper.  This  district  is  located  near  Mayville  and  Iron 
Ridge,  in  Dodge  County,  southeastern  Wisconsin. 

The  ores  here  are  oolitic  hematites,  corresponding  closely  in 
origin,  age,  character  and  grade  to  the  well-known  Clinton  hema- 
tites of  the  Birmingham  district  of  Alabama.  The  workable  beds 
vary  considerably  in  total  thickness  from  point  to  point  in  the 
Dodge  County  area,  the  aggregate  ranging  from  4  feet  up  to 
20  feet  or  more.  The  greater  thicknesses  reported  from  some 
points  on  the  outcrop  appear  to  be  due,  in  part,  to  the  inclusion 
of  loose  ore.  Leith  and  Van  Hise,  in  Monograph  LIT,  U.  S. 
Geological  Survey,  suggest  an  average  thickness  of  10  feet 
for  the  entire  area.  On  this  basis,  they  estimate  the  total  ton- 
nage of  ore  in  the  field  at  six  hundred  million  tons. 

As  to  grade  and  composition,  the  beds  show  considerable 
variation,  but  the  shipping  average  is  kept  quite  close  around  45 
percent  iron,  dry  basis.  The  handbook  of  the  Lake  Superior 
Iron-ore  Association  gives  the  following  analyses  from  the  two 
mines  of  this  district,  as  representative  of  the  average  of  ship- 
ments during  1911. 


214  IRON  ORES 

ANALYSES  OF  WISCONSIN  CLINTON  ORES,  1911 


Constituent 

Metallic  iron 

Mayville 
mine, 
natural 

41.15 

Mayville 
mine, 
dry  basis 

45.97 

Iron  Ridge 
mine, 
dry  basis 

46.39 

Manganese  
Silica  

0.16 
4.93 

n.  d. 
5.51 

n.  d. 
5.   34 

Alumina  

3.89 

4.35 

n.  d. 

Lime  .... 

5.46 

6.10 

n.  d. 

Magnesia  

2.66 

2.97 

n.  d. 

Sulphur  
Phosphorus 

0.037 
0.851 

0.041 
0.951 

n.  d. 
1.624 

Loss  on  ignition  
Moisture  at  212°  F.  . 

9.81 
10.48 

10.96 
0.00 

n.  d. 
0.00 

From  these  analyses  it  will  be  seen  that  the  ores,  like  Clinton 
ores  in  general,  are  characteristically  high  in  phosphorus. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES 

During  the  past  few  years  both  professional  and  public  at- 
tention has  been  attracted  toward  the  iron  ores  of  the  southern 
United  States,  to  such  a  degree  that  at  times  the  unwonted — 
and  unwanted — publicity  has  become  embarrassing  rather  than 
advantageous  to  those  engaged  in  mining  and  smelting  these  ores. 
In  spite  of  all  the  political  and  legal  discussion  of  various  phases 
of  the  subject,  there  still  seems  to  be  need  of  a  brief  summary  of 
the  commercial  and  geological  relations  of  the  southern  iron  ores; 
and  that  will  be  attempted  in  the  present  chapter.  The  past 
decade  has  afforded  a  large  supply  of  detailed  reports  on  in- 
dividual properties  or  on  particular  districts,  and  it  will  be  of 
advantage  to  use  the  data  now  available  in  such  a  way  as  to 
bring  out  the  more  general  features  of  the  subject.  In  doing 
this  the  writer  has  drawn  freely  from  his  own  notes  as  well  as 
from  published  descriptions  of  the  various  fields. 

CERTAIN  LIMITATIONS  AND  ADVANTAGES 

Before  taking  up  the  discussion  of  individual  ore  districts,  it 
will  be  well  to  make  certain  general  statements  regarding  south- 
ern ores,  in  an  attempt  to  clear  up  misapprehensions  which  still 
exist.  The  principal  points  to  which  attention  .should  be  drawn, 
in  this  connection,  are  as  follows: 

1.  At  an  early  stage  in  southern  iron  development,  and  before 
the  Mesabi  ore  had  begun  to  supply  the  northern  markets,  there 
was  a  widespread  idea  that  somewhere  in  the  South  it  would  be 
possible  to  develop  ores  in  such  tonnages,  and  under  such  traffic 
conditions,  as  to  make  them  available  as  an  auxiliary  supply  for 
Pittsburgh  and  Ohio  furnaces.  This  theory  has  cost  a  good  deal 
of  money  in  the  way  of  exploration,  and  is  still  encountered. 
It  will  clear  up  matters  if  we  take  it  for  granted  that,  with  two 
exceptions,  no  southern  ore  fields  are  likely  to  be  of  any  use  along 
this  line.  The  two  exceptions  are  (a)  the  Texas  brown  ore  field, 

215 


216  IRON  ORES 

which  will  be  discussed  later  in  this  chapter;  and  (b)  a  Virginia- 
West  Virginia  field,  which  promises  a  fair  tonnage  of  rather  low- 
grade  ore.  The  Texas  shipments  are  feasible  to-day;  the  other 
field  mentioned  is  merely  a  possibility  of  the  future. 

2.  The  second  point  requiring  attention  is  the  phosphorus 
content  of  the  southern  ores.     With  a  few  unimportant  excep- 
tions, no  ores  approaching  Bessemer  grade  occur  anywhere  in 
the  South.     It  is  true  that  samples  showing  low  phosphorus  can 
be  obtained  at  many  localities;  but  there  is  no  serious  tonnage 
of   such    ores   available   anywhere.     This   point   is   mentioned 
because   it   is    still   a  cause   of   useless   expense   to    optimistic 
investigators. 

3.  The  two  points  so  far  mentioned  have  been  warnings  against 
undue  optimism;  but  the  northern-trained  engineer  is  usually 
too  conservative  with  regard  to  the  question  of  tonnages,  so  that 
a  warning  in  the  other  direction  will  be  timely.     In  this  con- 
nection we  can  fairly  say  that,  in  dealing  with  southern  red  ores, 
we  are  dealing  with  the  most  continuous  and,  in  general,  the  most 
uniform  ores  known  anywhere;  and  that  when  this  fact  is  realized 
we  can  hazard  tonnage  estimates  on  data  which  would  be  too 
scanty  to  serve  as  a  fair  basis  in  dealing  with  ores  of  any  other 
type.     With  regard  to  brown  ores,  the  case  is  different,  but  even 
here  careful  work  will  usually  prevent  any  serious  and  expensive 
error. 

4.  The  final  point  to  be  borne  in  mind  is  that  all  of  these  ores 
are  still  cheap,  when  compared  with  equally  good  ores  anywhere 
else  in  the  United  States.     This  allows  a  great  deal  of  detailed 
examination  to  be  carried  out,  before  buying  or  developing  a 
southern  ore  property,  without  running  up  the  total  cost  of  the 
ore,  in  the  ground,  to  over  a  few  cents  per  ton.     Under  these 
circumstances,  there  is  little  excuse  for  hasty  or  careless  purchases ; 
and  it  is  generally  possible  to  have  a  very  definite  idea  as  to  total 
tonnage  and  average  grade  before  much  money  has  been  sunk 
in  the  transaction. 


PRINCIPAL  SOUTHERN  ORE  FIELDS 

It  would,  of  course,  be  possible  to  take  up  the  iron-ore  resources 
of  the  South  state  by  state,  and  supply  descriptions  of  most  of 
the  known  deposits,  for  an  immense  amount  of  data  is  now  avail- 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SO  UTHERN  UNITED  STA  TES       217 

able  on  these  subjects.  But  in  doing  this,  the  details  introduced 
would  inevitably  prevent  the  reader  from  obtaining  any  clear 
idea  of  the  general  situation.  In  order  to  avoid  confusion,  it 
seems  therefore  best  to  describe  the  ores  simply  in  their  larger 
and  more  general  grouping,  and  to  precede  this  discussion  of  the 
principal  ore  areas  by  a  few  words  as  to  the  principal  types  of 
the  ores  themselves. 

Southern  iron  ores,  as  now  mined  and  used,  include  red  and 
specular  hematites,  brown  ores,  and  magnetites.  The  same 
mineralogical  species  are  present,  therefore,  as  have  been  long 
familiar  to  northern  furnacemen.  But  the  proportions  of  the 
different  types,  and  their  relative  importance,  are  strikingly 
different  in  two  parts  of  the  country.  Hard  hematites  and 
magnetites,  so  common  in  the  Lake,  Highland  and  Adirondack 
areas  are  of  little  present  importance  in  the  South,  though  de- 
posits of  ore  of  these  kinds  are  known  to  exist,  are  now  mined, 
and  may  become  of  greater  importance.  But  as  things  stand 
now,  the  chief  southern  ores  are  of  two  types;  red  or  Clinton 
hematites,  and  brown  ores. 

The  following  table  has  been  prepared  to  show,  in  compact 
form,  the  distribution  of  the  various  types  of  iron  ore  in  the 
different  southern  states.  In  this  summary,  S  denotes  that  ship- 
ments have  been  made  in  recent  years;  U,  that  undeveloped 
deposits  are  known  to  exist;  and  O,  that  no  ore  of  this  type  is 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  IRON  ORE  IN  SOUTH 

State  Magnetite      Specular  Clinton         Brown 

hematite  or  oolitic  ore 

hematite 

Alabama.../ U  U  S  S 

Arkansas U  U  O  U 

Florida O  O  O  O 

Georgia U  U  S  S 

Kentucky O  O  S  S 

Louisiana O  O  O  U 

Maryland U  U  U  S 

Mississippi O  O  O  U 

Missouri S  S  O  S 

North  Carolina S  U  O  U 

Oklahoma U  U  O  U 

South  Carolina U  O  O  O 

Tennessee U  O  S  S 

Texas ' U  U  O  S 

Virginia S  S  S  S 

West  Virginia O  O  U  S 


218  IRON  ORES 

known  to  exist  in  the  given  state.  A  further  attempt  is  made 
to  indicate  roughly  the  relative  importance  of  the  deposits. 
When  the  deposits  of  any  type  are  of  large  size  or  otherwise 
of  high  commercial  importance,  whether  now  being  worked  or 
not,  they  are  indicated  by  italic  letters  S  or  U. 

The  red  hematites  are  by  far  the  most  characteristic,  as  well  as 
the  most  important,  of  southern  iron  ores.  They  occur  as  dis- 
tinct stratified  beds  in  the  Clinton  formation  of  Silurian  age,  and 
throughout  a  large  portion  of  the  southeastern  United  States 
workable  ore  beds  of  this  type  will  be  found  wherever  rocks  of 
that  formation  are  exposed.  The  red  ores  are  known  locally  as 
red,  fossil  or  oolitic  ores,  according  to  their  more  prominent 
characteristics  in  any  given  locality.  The  ore  beds  extend  almost 
uninterruptedly  from  Virginia  to  central  Alabama,  outcropping 
along  the  eastern  edge  of  the  Cumberland  plateau,  and  being  there- 
fore almost  always  within  easy  reach  of  workable  coal  beds.  They 
are  developed  in  greatest  thickness  in  the  Birmingham  region  of 
northern  Alabama;  but  are  commercially  workable  elsewhere  in 
Alabama,  as  well  as  throughout  most  of  northwest  Georgia, 
eastern  Tennessee,  and  at  a  few  points  in  Virginia.  .At  and  near 
the  surface  the  action  of  surface  waters  has  leached  out  most  of 
the  lime  carbonate  which  the  red  ores  originally  contained.  The 
ores  near  the  outcrop  are  therefore  usually  low  in  lime,  and  re- 
latively rich  in  iron,  ranging  often  as  high  as  50  to  60  percent 
metallic  iron.  But  this  is  purely  a  surficial  phenomenon,  and 
when  the  beds  are  followed  underground  to  a  point  where  leach- 
ing has  not  occurred,  the  ore  is  found  to  carry  considerable  lime 
carbonate,  and  to  range  from  30  to  40  percent  in  metallic  iron. 

The  brown  hematites,  or  brown  ores  as  they  are  more  simply 
called,  are  hydrated  iron  oxides,  carrying  even  when  pure  from 
10  to  15  percent  of  combined  water.  A  brown  ore  running  55 
percent  metallic  iron  would  therefore  be  usually  a  much  purer 
material  than  a  hard  hematite  or  magnetite  carrying  the  same 
iron  percentage.  The  brown  ores  however  occur  usually  in  very 
irregular  deposits,  and  almost  inevitably  require  concentration  to 
bring  them  up  to  their  normal  commercial  grade  of  40  to  50  per- 
cent metallic  iron.  Much  better  concentrating  work  would  be 
easily  possible  but  is  not  at  present  justified  by  the  ordinary  price 
of  southern  pig  iron.  As  to  geographic  distribution,  brown  ores 
are  of  so  wide  occurrence  that  at  first  sight  it  may  seem  impossible 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SO  UTHERN  UNITED  STA  TES    219 

to  group  the  deposits  in  any  comprehensive  way.  But  after 
longer  acquaintance  with  the  subject  it  will  be  found  that  by  far 
the  bulk  of  our  present  brown- ore  output,  as  well  as  most  of  that 
which  will  be  utilized  in  the  near  future,  comes  from  one  of  three 
large  areas.  These  important  brown-ore  districts  are  respectively : 

1.  In  the  Appalachian  Valley,  and  its  foothills,  extending 
from  the  northern  line  of  Virginia  to  central  Alabama. 

2.  In  northwestern  Alabama,  middle  Tennessee  and  western 
Kentucky,  along  the  Tennessee  River  drainage  area. 

3.  In  northeastern  Texas. 

In  all  of  these  districts  brown- ore  deposits  of  large  size  occur, 
and  the  total  tonnages  available  are  very  large,  ranging  in  the 
hundreds  of  millions  of  tons.  The  districts  differ  among  them- 
selves in  the  character  and  associations  of  their  ores,  and  in  their 
present  degree  of  development,  and  can  therefore  be  discussed 
separately  with  more  clearness  than  if  we  attempted  to  consider 
all  the  southern  brown  ores  at  once. 

Finally,  it  is  necessary  to  mention  the  occurrence  of  deposits  of 
magnetite  and  specular  hematite  along  the  Blue  Ridge  and  re- 
lated areas  in  central  Virginia,  the  western  portion  of  the  Caro- 
olinas,  and  central  Georgia  and  Alabama.  Most  of  these  de- 
posits are  badly  located  so  far  as  fuel  and  transportation  are  con- 
cerned, so  that  they  have  not  been  seriously  developed  except 
at  a  few  points.  But  their  concentrating  possibilities  are  such 
that  they  offer  much  hope  for  the  near  future. 

The  main  types  of  iron  ores  used  in  the  south  have  now  been 
noted,  and  their  general  distribution  has  been  outlined.  These 
facts  can  be  used  as  a  convenient  basis  for  further  descriptions. 

In  describing  the  principal  southern  ore  fields,  it  will  therefore 
be  possible  to  group  them  as  follows: 

1.  Red  or  Clinton  ores. 

2.  Brown  ores;  Appalachian  region. 

3.  Brown  ores;  Tennessee  River  region. 

4.  Brown  ores;  northeast  Texas. 

5.  Magnetites  and  allied  ores. 

It  is  true  that  this  grouping  omits  some  ores  which  have  been  of 
importance  in  the  past,  or  may  become  important  in  the  future. 
But  it  covers  substantially  all  of  the  tonnage  now  used,  and  the 
isolated  deposits  which  do  not  fall  in  any  of  the  groups  named  can 
safely  be  disregarded  in  any  general  discussion  of  the  subject. 


220  IRON  ORES 

THE  RED  OR  CLINTON  HEMATITES 

The  red  or  Clinton  hematites,  which  are  now  to  be  taken  up  in 
slightly  more  detail,  are  the  backbone  of  the  southern  iron  and 
steel  industry.  They  occur  in  enormous  tonnages,  reaching 
well  into  the  thousands  of  millions  of  tons;  they  are  usually 
cheaply  mined;  they  are  commonly  very  uniform  in  composition 
and  character;  and  their  grade,  in  view  of  all  industrial  condi- 
tions, is  very  satisfactory.  This  last  statement  does  not  mean 
that  they  ever  show  high  percentages  of  metallic  iron,  for  they 
do  not,  their  normal  range  being  from  33  to  40  percent  iron.  But 
in  most  of  their  developed  area,  the  Clinton  red  ores  carry  high 
percentages  of  lime  carbonate,  so  that  their  silica  is  not  as  high  as 
the  low  iron  content  might  seem  to  indicate.  This,  as  well  as  a 
number  of  more  directly  commercial  factors,  must  be  taken  into 
account  when  a  comparison  is  drawn  between  these  ores  and 
other  ores  of  a  more  siliceous  type. 

In  an  earlier  paragraph  the  geographic  distribution  of  the 
red  ores  was  briefly  outlined,  and  it  will  now  be  profitable  to 
recur  to  this  phase  of  the  matter.  Before  taking  up  the  question 
of  their  distribution  in  the  south,  it  may  be  well  to  note  that  ores 
of  exactly  similar  type  and  age  have  long  been  known  and  worked 
in  New  York,  Wisconsin  and  Nova  Scotia;  while  the  oolitic  ores 
of  the  Newfoundland  and  Lorraine-Luxembourg  districts  are 
closely  similar  in  type  but  different  in  geologic  age.  We  are 
dealing,  therefore,  with  a  very  widespread  type  of  ore,  and  with 
one  which  to-day  is  the  main  supply  of  the  Canadian,  German, 
Belgian  and  French  steel  industries.  Ores  of  purely  sedimentary 
origin  are,  in  fact,  of  far  more  importance,  both  as  regards 
tonnage  and  industrial  use,  than  would  be  suspected  on  reference 
to  an  ordinary  text-book  on  ore-deposits. 

The  bulk  of  the  red  oolitic  ores  with  which  we  are  now  con- 
cerned are  associated  with  rocks  of  Silurian  age,  and  occur  as 
definite  beds  in  the  so-called  Clinton  formation.  In  the  southern 
United  States,  Clinton  rocks  outcrop  along  the  eastern  flank  of 
the  coal  fields,  from  Maryland  to  Central  Alabama.  The  ore 
beds  are  almost  continuous  throughout  this  great  extent,  though 
in  Virginia  there  are  few  points  at  which  they  attain  workable 
thickness  and  grade.  Through  eastern  Tennessee,  however, 
the  red  ores  become  of  importance,  and  in  Alabama  they  reach 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES     221 


their  maximum  thickness  and,  in  general,  their  best  grade.  Care- 
less overestimates  of  their  grade  have,  in  the  past,  led  to  bitter 
disappointment  and  heavy  loss,  as  a  mere  mention  of  Big  Stone 
Gap,  Middlesboro,  Fort  Payne  and  Gadsden  will  serve  to  recall; 
but  as  against  that  we  may  fairly  set  Birmingham,  Ensley,  Rock- 


Outcrop  of                  Outcrop  oF  Outcrop  containing 

Workable                Possibly  Workable  f  if  fie  or  no 

Iron  Ore                         Iron  Ore  Workable  Iron  Ore 
SCALE  OF  MILES 

0  5  ip  15  20         85          30 

FIG.  29. — Map     of     Birmingham     district,     Alabama.     (Modified     from 

Bur  chard. 

wood  and  a  number  of  other  successful  iron  manufacturing 
localities  where  these  ores  have  been  the  main  source  of  supply. 
Birmingham,  of  course,  represents  the  Clinton  ore  at  its  best 
development. 


222 


IRON  ORES 


The  distribution  and  industrial  relations  of  the  southern  red 
ores  can  be  best  understood  if  we  take  up  separately  the  three 
districts  into  which  it  is  convenient  to  group  them.  Birming- 
ham will  be  first  discussed  in  some  detail,  after  which  the  Chatta- 
nooga-Attalla  region  and  the  Tennessee-Virginia  area  may  be 
treated  in  more  summary  fashion. 

Birmingham  District. — In  the  Birmingham  district  the 
Clinton  formation  shows,  at  almost  every  point  where  it  is  care- 
fully examined,  from  three  to  five  distinct  beds  of  red  ore.  Only 

Devonian  Shale 


Sandstone 
[_'  r  '  •[  /  'i  me  stone 

gg^  shale  and  Sandstone 
I  Iron  Ore  Beds 


Ordovtc'ian  Limestone 


FIG.  30. — Generalized  geologic  section  in  Birmingham  district. 

two  of  these,  however,  are  of  sufficient  extent,  grade  and  con- 
tinuity to  be  seriously  considered  as  factors  in  the  ore  situation. 
The  two  important  beds  or  seams  have  been  named  respectively 
the  Irondale  Seam  and  the  Big  Seam,  Of  these  the  Big  Seam 
is  the  thickest  and  most  extensive.  It  lies  above  the  Irondale 
geologically  and  topographically,  the  interval  between  the  two 
varying  from  1  to  10  feet,  and  being  occupied  by  shale  and 
occasionally  sandstone  beds. 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES     223 

The  Big  Seam  itself  varies  from  15  to  30  feet  in  thickness,  but 
of  this  total  only  from  7  to  12  feet  of  ore  are  good  enough  to  work- 
at  present.  Throughout  most  of  the  district  the  lower  portion 
of  the  Big  Seam  is  too  low  grade  for  present  use.  The  Irondale 
Seam  ranges  from  4  to  6  feet  in  thickness  in  the  area  where  it  is 
worked.  Further  data  on  these  two  seams,  as  they  are  developed 
in  the  more  important  portion  of  the  Birmingham  district,  are 
quoted  from  Bulletin  400,  United  States  Geological  Survey,  in 
the  accompanying  table. 

TABLE.— EXTENT  OF  IRONDALE  AND  BIG  SEAMS,  WITH  CHEMICAL 
ANALYSIS  OF  THE  ORES 


Ore  seam  and  locality 
Irondale  Seam: 

Length    Minable    Dip  in         Average  composition 
of          ore  at        Red                      (hard  ores) 
outcrop,  outcrop,  Mountain     Fe,            SiO2           CaO, 
feet           feet     degrees     percent    percent     percent 

Morrow  Gap  to  Bald  Eagle  . 

11,000 

4 

.25 

15-18 

35.14 

31 

.23 

4. 

55 

Bald  Eagle  to  Red  Gap  

15,000 

4 

.5 

15-18 

33 

.67 

22 

.54 

12. 

89 

Red  Gap  to  Helen-Bess  

18,200 

4 

15-20 

35 

.81 

25 

.57 

8. 

48 

Helen-Bess  to  Hedona 

6,800 

3 

.5 

17-22 

36 

.12 

19 

.60 

14. 

90 

Big  Seam: 

£  «_' 

Bald  Eagle  to  Red  Gap 

15,000 

7 

15-18 

35 

,87 

26 

.54 

10. 

92 

Red  Gap  to  Helen-Bess 

18,200 

8 

15-20 

34 

.77 

30 

91 

7_ 

?'•» 

Helen-Bess  to  Hedona  

6,800 

10 

17-22 

32 

01 

32 

.81 

8. 

I  O 

51 

Hedona  to  Walker  Gap  

14,500 

10 

20-25 

35 

.40 

25 

.90 

9. 

,50 

Walker  Gap  to  Graces  Gap  . 

5,000 

12 

20-25 

36 

.26 

19 

.02 

13. 

50 

Graces  Gap  to  Spring  Gap  .  . 

11,700 

9, 

5 

18-25 

34. 

90 

14. 

86 

16. 

12 

Spring   Gap    to   Woodward 

14,200 

9 

18-32 

36 

.97 

12 

.58 

16. 

98 

No.  2 

Woodward  No.  2  to  Readers 

15,500 

10 

.75 

20-30 

35 

.10 

10 

.64 

19. 

31 

Gap 

Readers  Gap  to  Potter  

10,000 

8. 

5 

18-40 

35 

.44 

11 

.20 

18. 

25 

Potter  to  Sparks  Gap  

5,200 

5 

,5 

30-45 

33 

.28 

12 

.18 

19. 

41 

All  of  the  red- ore  mines  in  the  Birmingham  district  started 
originally  as  open  cuts  along  the  outcrop,  the  product  being 
at  first  soft,  or  leached  ore,  taken  out  by  hand  labor.  At  a 
few  points  in  the  district  mines  of  this  simple  type  are  still  in 
operation,  but  in  most  instances  they  have  gone  much  further, 
and  are  now  completely  underground  operations,  operated  by 
slopes  or  inclines.  In  the  near  future  we  may  expect  to  find  a 
third  type  of  mine  developed,  operated  by  shafts. 

The  ore  beds  on  Red  Mountain  dip  eastward  at  angles  of  15 
to  30  degrees.  In  the  average  mine  the  workings  consist  of  a 
slope  driven  down  the  dip  in  the  ore,  with  entries  turned  off  at 
intervals  from  this  slope.  At  several  points  on  the  mountain, 


224 


IRON  ORES 


however,  ravines  have  conveniently  cut  through  the  ore  and 
exposed  the  ore  beds  for  some  distance  along  the  sides  of  the 
ravines.  In  such  cases,  it  is  possible  to  replace  the  underground 
slope  by  an  inclined  track  laid  in  the  ravine,  while  drifts  run  into 
the  banks  at  intervals  take  the  place  of  the  entries.  In  either 
case  the  ore  is  worked  out  in  rooms,  and  the  pillars  are  finally 
recovered.  The  total  cost  per  ton  of  ore  at  the  mouth  of  the 
mine  may  range  from  seventy-five  cents  to  ninety  cents  the 
difference  being  largely  in  the  amounts  charged  off  for  amor- 
tization, and  the  manner  in  which  the  mine  and  its  machinery 
are  kept  up.  Extreme  parsimony  in  these  directions  makes  a 
good  showing  for  a  few  years,  but  is  apt  to  have  painful  results 
later.  All  the  ore  now  shipped  from  the  Red  Mountain  mines  is 
crushed  to  a  convenient  furnace  size  at  the  mine  tipple,  and  at 


Coal  Measures,  Cahaba  Field. 


Clinton  Ore  Formation. 


|    2     |  Devonian  and  Lower  Carboniferous.    \    4    [  Silurian  and  Older  Limestone. 

FIG.  31.— Section   across  Red    Mt.  to  Shades    Mt.,    Birmingham   district 

(Ellis  and  Jordan.) 

present  no  concentration  of  any  kind  is  practised.  The  fact 
is,  however,  that  in  addition  to  the  large  reserves  of  commercial 
ore  which  are  known  to  exist,  there  are  also  several  thousand 
million  tons  of  lower  grade  ores  in  the  district  which  may,  at  some 
future  date,  be  worth  concentrating  up  to  a  profitable  grade. 

Publications  on  Birmingham  District. — The  following  list 
contains  titles  of  the  more  important  publications  relative  to 
the  ore  deposits  or  iron  industry  of  the  Birmingham  district. 

ARMES,  E.     The  Story  of  Coal  and  Iron  in  Alabama.     8vo,  580  pages. 

Birmingham,  1910. 
BURCHARD,  E.  F.,  and  BUTTS,  C.     Iron  Ores,  Fuels  and  Fluxes  of  the 

Birmingham   district.     Bulletin  400,  U .  S.  Geol.  Survey,  204  pages. 

1910. 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES     225 

CRANE,  W.  R.  Iron  Mining  in  the  Birmingham  District.  Eng.  and  Mining 
Journal,  Feb.  9,  1905. 

ECKEL,  E.  C.  Origin  of  the  Clinton  and  Brown  Ores  of  the  Birmingham 
District.  Bulletin  400,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  28-39,  145-150.  1910. 

HIGGINS,  E.  Iron  Operations  of  the  Birmingham  District.  Eng.  and  Min- 
ing Journal,  Nov.  28,  1908. 

PHILLIPS,  W.  B.  Iron  Making  in  Alabama.  Bulletin  Ala.  Geol.  Survey, 
1912. 

Chattanooga -Attalla  Region. — For  some  distance  north  of  the 
immediate  Birmingham  district  little  development  has  taken 
place  on  the  red  ores.  But  from  the  vicinity  of  Attalla  and 
Gadsden  (Alabama)  north  to  Chattanooga  a  number  of  mines 
are  now  in  operation  or  have  been  worked  recently.  These 
mines  have  supplied  furnaces  located  at  Gadsden,  Attalla,  Fort 
Payne,  Battelle,  Rising  Fawn  and  Chattanooga.  Of  this  list, 
only  the  furnaces  at  the  extreme  northern  and  southern  points — 
Chattanooga,  Attalla  and  Gadsden — seem  to  require  considera- 
tion as  future  iron  producers. 

The  ores  of  the  Chattanooga-Attalla  region  occur  mainly  as 
a  broad  flat  syncline  or  basin  underlying  Lookout  Mountain. 
The  mines  have  been  opened  on  the  two  exposed  outcrops  of  this 
basin,  along  the  east  and  west  flanks  of  Lookout  Mountain  re- 
spectively. The  total  tonnage  of  the  area,  if  we  included  all  the 
ore  which  unquestionably  underlies  the  mountain,  would  be 
enormous.  On  the  other  hand,  the  beds  are  relatively  thin, 
and  it  is  unlikely  that  the  deeper  levels  will  be  operated  in  this 
district  as  they  must  some  day  be  worked  at  Birmingham. 
Under  these  circumstances  it  will  be  best  to  confine  tonnage 
setimates  to  such  portions  of  the  outcrop  as  show  fairly  workable 
ore  beds,  and  to  restrict  our  estimates  in  depth  to  some  con- 
ventional level.  Even  a  depth  of  1000  feet  gives  tonnages  rang- 
ing well  up  in  the  hundreds  of  millions. 

The  chief  developments  of  this  region  have  taken  place  at 
Attalla,  Crudup  and  Porterville  mines,  on  the  west  side  of 
Lookout  Mountain,  and  at  Gadsden,  Bronco  and  Estalle  along 
the  mountain's  eastern  flank.  The  Dirtseller  and  Taylor  Ridge 
mines  are  located  on  outlying  deposits  east  of  the  main  mass. 

The  following  publications  refer  to  the  Clinton  ores  of  northern 
Alabama  and  Georgia. 

BURCHARD,  E.  F.     Tonnage  Estimates  of  Clinton  Ore  in  the  Chattanooga 
District.     Bulletin  380,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  169-187.     1909. 
15 


226 


IRON  ORES 


86°00' 


85°30' 


85°30' 


85°00' 


Base  from  U.S. Post  Route  maps 
of  Alabama  and  Georgia 


IS  20  MILES  Coal  areas  from  Mineral  Resource* 

i       ,      ,  3  U.S.  1910.  yon-ore  outcrops 

mapped  by  E.F.BurcharcJ 


LEGEND 


Iron- ore  outcrop  Iron-ore  outcrop  Iroitore  outcrop         Blast  furnace        Colse  oven 


VyV>_V^  >  XX^  JJ.  lALL"  U±  C     \r\J.l\*A-\J±r  JJLUJLL-VJ.G    VlCt.  IA-  J.  \J^J  *j_  w**.  x-*--w    v. 

Coalfields          (Generally  more  than'          (Generally  less  than.  (Thicknessnot 

,      2  feet  thick.)  2  feet  thick)  determined) 


FIG.  32. — Map  showing  relation  of  outcrops  of  red  iron  ore  to  coal  fields, 
transportation  routes,  and  industrial  centers  in  northeast  Alabama  and 
northwest  Georgia.  (Burchard.) 


} 

wf 

I 


• 

i 


BfttBB^ 


.. 


. 


85°30 


8SC 


85°30' 


Base  from  U.S.Post  Route 
.map  of  Tennessee 


IO          5  O 


10 


FIG.  33. — Map  showng  relation  of  red  iron  ores  to  coal  fields,  trar 


LEGEND 


Iron-ore  outcrop 
(Thickness  not 
determined) 

EH 

Blast  furnace 


Coke  oven 


3O  MILES         Coal  areas  from  geologic  folios  of  U.S. 
— — '  Geological  Survey-,  iron-ore  outcrops 

mapped  by  E.F.Burchard 

tion  routes,  and  industrial  centers  in  east  Tennessee.     (Bur chard.) 

(Facing  page  226) 


,  {,\v^\\. 


KtJtTTi^ 


• 


., 


- 
- 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES    227 

ECKEL,  E.  C.     The  Clinton  or  Red  Ores  of  Northern  Alabama.     Bulletin 

285,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  172-179.     1906. 
ECKEL,  E.  C.     The  Clinton  or  Red  Ores  of  Georgia.     Iron  Trade  Review, 

January  7,  1909. 
HIGGINS,    E.     Iron   Operations  in  the  Chattanooga   District.     Eng.   and 

Mining  Journal,  January  2,  1909. 
MCCALLIE,  S.  W.     Report  on  the  Fossil  Iron  Ores  of  Georgia.     Bulletin  17, 

Georgia  Geol.  Survey.     1908. 

Tennessee- Virginia  Region. — The  main  belt  of  Clinton  ore 
outcrop  extends  northeastwardly  across  Tennessee  from  Chatta- 
nooga to  Cumberland  Gap,  where  it  enters  Virginia.  This  is  a 
distance  of  170  miles,  measured  directly. 

The  ore  seams  are,  however,  not  absolutely  continuous  for  the 
entire  distance,  being  absent  or  at  least  unknown  in  certain  por- 
tions of  the  belt.  Furthermore,  the  ore  beds  which  are  known 
and  located  are,  for  considerable  fractions  of  their  extent,  un- 
workable because  of  extreme  thinness.  On  the  other  hand,  for 
much  of  the  distance  from  Virginia  to  the  southern  border  of 
Tennessee,  there  are  folds  in  the  strata  which  result  in  duplication 
of  the  ore  outcrop.  Allowing  for  all  of  these  factors,  we  find  that 
the  total  length  of  Clinton  ore  outcrops  in  Tennessee  is  in  the 
neighborhood  of  300  miles.  Of  this  total,  about  115  miles  is 
reported  as  containing  an  ore  bed  over  2  feet  in  thickness. 
From  these  figures  it  is  obvious  that  there  is  an  enormous  total 
tonnage  of  red  ore  in  East  Tennessee;  but  they  also  suggest  that 
it  would  be  hazardous  to  indulge  in  very  extravagant  hopes  as 
to  the  percentage  of  this  total  which  can  be  considered  workable 
in  the  near  future. 

At  various  points  where  the  red  ore  is  actually  worked  for 
furnace  use,  thicknesses  are  reported  as  follows:  Rockwood, 
2J  to  4  feet;  Crescent,  5  to  6  feet;  Chamberlain,  5  to  7  feet; 
LaFollette,  3f  to  5  feet. 

The  ore  varies,  of  course,  in  grade  through  the  usual  range  of 
Clinton  ores.  Regarding  this  point  Burchard  states  that  the 
usual  range  of  the  hard  ores  used  now  at  Tennessee  furnaces  is 
between  the  following  limits:  iron,  25  to  45  percent;  lime,  8  to  20 
percent;  silica  4  to  15  percent;  alumina,  4  to  10  percent;  phos- 
phorus, 0.25  to  0.75  percent;  and  sulphur,  from  a  trace  up  to 
1  percent. 

Nine  stacks  use  the  Tennessee  red  ores  as  their  principal  ore 
supply,  though  commonly  some  brown  ore  is  used  in  the  charge. 


228  IRON  ORES 

The  furnaces  in  question  are  Chattanooga,  Citico,  South  Pitts- 
burgh (2),  Dayton  (2),  Rockwood  (2)  and  LaFollette. 

In  Virginia  the  Clinton  red  ores  occur  in  workable  thickness  at 
only  a  few  points,  and  mining  development  has  taken  place  on  a 
very  small  scale.  Beds  near  Cumberland  Gap  were  once  worked 
for  the  furnaces  at  Middlesborough,  Kentucky,  but  have  been 
idle  for  many  years.  More  recently  a  red  ore  mine  was  operated 
by  the  Lowmoor  Iron  Company  some  miles  south  of  Lowmoor 
station,  on  the  Chesapeake  &  Ohio  Railroad. 

The  following  reports  and  papers  refer  to  the  Clinton  ores  of 
Virginia  and  Tennessee. 

BURCHAED,  E.  F.     Tonnage  Estimates  of  Clinton  Ores  in  the  Chattanooga 

District.     Bulletin  380,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  169-187.     1909. 
BURCHARD,  E.  F.     The  Red  Iron  Ores  of  East  Tennessee.     Bulletin  16, 

Tennessee  Geol.  Survey,  p.  173.     1913. 
ECKEL,  E.  C.     The  Oriskany  and  Clinton  Ores  of  Virginia.     Bulletin  285, 

U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  183-189      1906. 
MOORE,  P.  N.     Report  on  Iron  Ores  in  the  Vicinity  of  Cumberland  Gap. 

Reports  Kentucky  Geol.  Survey,  vol.  4,  pp.  241-254.     1878. 

BROWN  ORES  OF  THE  APPALACHIAN  VALLEY 

The  red  ores  which  have  just  been  discussed  are  sedimentary 
ores,  occurring  as  definite  beds  inter-stratified  with  other  rocks; 
and  their  place  in  the  geologic  system  is  therefore  fixed  very 
closely.  The  brown  ores,  which  are  now  to  be  considered,  are 
very  different  in  origin  and  associations.  They  occur  as  scattered 
deposits,  overlying  rocks  of  different  geologic  ages,  and  the  brown- 
ore  deposits  are  of  much  later  age  than  the  rocks  which  they  now 
overlie.  They  have  originated,  in  most  cases,  through  deposition 
from  iron-charged  waters,  the  deposition  taking  place  near  the 
ground  surface,  and  being  particularly  apt  to  occur  where  beds  of 
limestone  offered  a  resting  place  for  the  iron  minerals. 

The  principal  brown-ore  deposits  of  the  South  occur  in  the 
Appalachian  Valley,  or  in  its  foothills.  This  limestone  valley  is 
almost  continuous  from  Canada  to  Alabama,  and  throughout  its 
entire  extent  it  presents  almost  ideal  opportunities  for  the  for- 
mation of  brown-ore  deposits.  Flanked  on  the  east  by  iron- 
bearing  crystalline  rocks,  which  form  the  Highlands  of  New 
York  and  New  Jersey,  the  South  Mountain  and  Blue  Ridge  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  and  similar  ranges  further  south, 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES    229 


230 


Romney  shale . . 


IRON  ORES 


'•Monterey"  (Oriskany) sandstone 
Lewisto wn  limestone 


Clinton  (Kockwood)  formation 

rciinci 


Tus*carora..V 
Jiiniata / 


nut ten  . . 


\Bays.. 


fSevier  ..1 

Martinsburg.JTellico..V 
(Athens. 


Liberty  Hall  limestone. .] 

fCbickamauga  , 
Murat  limestone j 


{Knox ) 
Nolichucky} 
Honaker  ..J 


••Buena  Vista"  shale  (Watauga) ., 


Sherwood  limestone  (Shady). . 


Lower  Cambrian  quartzlte 


Lower  Cambrian  quartzite  and  shale 


2000 


I  Oriskany  brown  ore. 
Clinton  fossil  hematite. 


I    .)     17 1     I.    I    ,r 


Limestone  magnetite. 


II         II 


I  .    I   ,  I   ,  I    .  I    .  I 


1.1      II      I 


I         I         I         I 


11.11 


I.I.I     .    I 


I  .     I    .    1.1.1,1 


i      i 


'  .  r 


lilt 


i.'i.i. 


I.   I  .  I  .  I  .  I 


i      i      i      i     i 


i     i  . , '     i 


i.     I      !       I 


ill      I     II 


I.I.I 


I      I       >         I       I 


1 I      1 


Valley  brown  ore  (Blue  Ridge  district) 


11)111 


I       1 


Valley  brown  ore  (New  River  district). 
Mountain  brown  ore. 


Siliceous  specular  hematite. 

2000  Feet 


FIG.  35. — Geologic    section    of     Appalachian    Valley    rocks    in    Virginia. 

(Harder.) 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES     231 

the  progress  of  rock  decay  has  for  ages  furnished  a  supply  of  iron- 
charged  surface  waters.  The  rocks  of  the  valley  itself,  consisting 
chiefly  of  limestone  with  interbedded  shales  and  sandstones,  all 
containing  iron  in  small  but  persistent  amounts,  are  more  im- 
mediate sources  of  supply.  The  iron-bearing  waters  have  found 
excellent  locations  for  the  deposition  of  their  iron  in  the  valley 
and  its  foothills,  whose  rocks  vary  in  composition,  solubility  and 
hardness,  and  dip  at  varying  angles.  The  topographic  features 
which  result  from  these  conditions  have  influenced  the  location  and 
the  type  of  brown-ore  deposits  which  occur  in  various  portions  of 
the  valley. 

The  net  result  of  these  geologic  conditions  is  that  now,  reaching 
all  the  way  from  Vermont  to  central  Alabama,  we  find  more  or 


|Vp>j  De von ian  Shale. 

[h  IT]  Monterey  (Oriskany)  Sandstone. 

L  e  w!s  to  wn  (Helderberg)  L  imes  tone. 
&£'<&  Brown  Ore  Replacing  Limestone. 
\         I  Underlying  Shales,  Sandstones,  Etc. 

FIG.  36. — Cross-section    of    typical     ore   deposits     in   Oriskany    district, 

Virginia. 

less  extensive  deposits  of  brown  ore  scattered  along  the  Appalach- 
ian Valley  Region.  Occasionally  workable  deposits  are  found  well 
out  in  the  valley  itself,  but  usually  they  occur  along  its  flanking 
hills. 

Throughout  most  of  the  range,  the  heaviest  deposits  are  along 
the  eastern  side  of  the  valley;  but  the  well-known  Oriskany  ores 
of  Virginia,  long  worked  at  Longdale,  Lowmoor  and  other  mines, 
are  on  its  western  side,  and  the  Woodstock  and  Champion  dis- 
tricts of  Alabama  are  also  west  of  the  main  limestone  valley.  In 
Tennessee,  northern  Alabama,  northeast  Georgia  and  south- 


232 


IRON  ORES 


western  Virginia,  however,  the  brown-ore  mines  which  have  be- 
come serious  shippers  are  principally  located  close  to  the  eastern 
side  of  the  valley,  and  in  some  cases  the  deposits  lie  well  up  on  the 
ridges  flanking  the  eastern  edge. 

In  practically  all  cases,  except  in  the  Virginia  Oriskany  dis- 
trict, the  brown  ore  occurs  associated  with  limestones,  shales  and 
quartzites  of  Cambrian  or  lower  Silurian  age,  or  with  the  clays 
and  other  residual  material  derived  from  the  decay  of  these  rocks. 
The  ores  do  not  form  continuous  beds,  but  are  in  irregular  de- 
posits. These  deposits  are  apt  to  be  richest  at  or  near  the  sur- 


FIG.  37. — Brown  ore  body,  Vesuvius,  Va.     (Harder.) 


face,  and  to  disappear  entirely  when  they  are  followed  deep  enough 
to  strike  solid  rock.  Their  irregularities  of  form  and  richness  are 
very  pronounced;  but  usually  a  careful  study  of  local  geologic 
features  will  enable  both  prospecting  and  working  to  be  carried 
on  with  reasonable  economy  and  certainty.  In  places,  where 
the  ores  were  originally  concentrated  along  particular  beds  of 
rock,  the  existing  deposits  still  show  some  approach  to  alternations 
of  rich  and  barren  layers;  in  other  instances,  as  for  example  that 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES    233 

shown  in  Fig.  17,  there  is  little  approach  to  system  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  ore  throughout  the  clay. 

This  last  note  brings  us  to  another  feature  of  brown-ore  mining. 
The  ore  itself,  at  its  theoretical  maximum  of  purity,  could  con- 
ceivably carry  from  60  to  66  percent  metallic  iron,  according  to 
the  particular  iron  mineral  which  happened  to  form  the  bulk  of 
the  ore.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  even  the  most  careful  hand  min- 
ing, in  the  richest  deposits,  rarely  gives  ore  grading  over  55  per- 
cent metallic  iron;  and  by  far  the  bulk  of  our  southern  brown  ores, 
after  washing  and  jigging,  will  not  yield  over  50  percent  iron. 
In  many  districts  even  this  grade  can  not  be  attained  in  a  com- 
mercial way,  and  one  important  district  does  not  give  much  over 
42  percent  iron  for  steady  shipments. 

In  producing  a  ton  of  50  percent  ore,  it  may  be  necessary  to 
mine  from  2  to  15  tons  of  crude  ore  dirt,  according  to  the 
district.  The  bulk  of  the  Appalachian  output  probably  comes 
from  ores  which  concentrate  at  ratios  of  between  3:1  and  5:1, 
however.  A  large  portion  of  this  tonnage  is  produced  by  simple 
washing,  without  jigging;  and  even  a  casual  study  of  the  Appa- 
lachian ores  will  serve  to  show  that  this  leaves  large  margin  for 
improvement.  As  the  Appalachian  brown-ore  deposits  still  con- 
tain, so  far  as  can  be  estimated,  several  hundreds  of  millions  of  tons 
of  good  ore,  there  is  obviously  reason  to  pay  more  attention  to 
questions  of  more  careful  methods  of  mining  and  concentration. 

Commercially,  it  can  be  said  that  the  Appalachian  brown  ores 
furnish  the  entire  supply  for  all  of  the  Virginia  furnaces ;  for  sev- 
eral in  east  Tennessee ;  and  for  a  small  group  in  northern  Alabama 
and  northwest  Georgia;  and  that  they  furnish  a  part  of  the  sup- 
ply for  the  furnaces  of  the  Birmingham  district. 

The  following  publications  refer  to  the  brown  ores  of  the 
Appalachian  Valley  region,  from  Maryland  to  Alabama. 

BURCHARD,  E.  F.,  and  ECKEL,  E.  C.     Iron  Ores  of  the  Birmingham  District. 

Bulletin  400,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey.     1909. 
ECKEL,  E.  C.     The  Oriskany  Ores  of  Virginia.     Bulletin  285,  U.  S.  Geol. 

Survey,  pp.  183-189.     1906. 
HARDER,  E.  C.     Iron  Ores  of  the  Appalachian  Region  in  Virginia.     Bulletin 

380,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  215-254.     1909. 
HAYES,  C.  W.,  and  ECKEL,  E.  C.     Iron  Ores  of  the  Cartersville  District, 

Georgia.     Bulletin  213,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  233-242.     1903. 
HIGGINS,  E.     Iron  Operations  in  Northeastern  Alabama.     Eng.  and  Mining 

Journal,  Dec.  5,  1908. 


234  IRON  ORES 

HOLDEN,  R.  J.     Iron  Ores  of  Virginia.     In  Mineral  Resources  of  Virginia, 

1907. 
HOLDEN,  R.  J.     Brown  Ores  of  the  New  River-Cripple  Creek  District, 

Virginia.     Bulletin  285,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  190-193.     1906. 
JARVES,  R.  P.     The  Valley  and  Mountain  Iron  Ores  of  East  Tennessee. 

Resources  of  Tennessee,  vol.  2,  No.  9,  September,  1912,  pp.  326-360. 
JOHNSON,  J.  E.,  JR.     Origin  of  the  Oriskany  Limonites.     Eng.  and  Mining 

Journal,  vol.  76,  pp.  231-232.     1903. 
MCCALLIE,  S.   W.     The  Brown  Ores  of  Georgia.     Bulletin   10,   Georgia 

Geol.  Survey,  190  pages.     1900. 
MOXHAM,  E.  C.     The  Great  Gossan  Lead  of  Virginia.     Trans.  Amer.  Inst. 

Mining  Engrs.,  vol.  21,  pp.  133-138.     1892. 
PORTER,  J.  J.     The  Virginia  Iron  Industry.     Manufacturer's  Record,  vol. 

51,  pp.  717-719,  749-752,  788-790.     1907. 
SINGEWALD,  J.  T.      Report  -on  the  Iron  Ores  of  Maryland.     Reports  Md. 

Geol.  Survey,  vol.  9,  part  3,  pp.  123-337.     1911. 

BROWN  ORES  OF  THE  TENNESSEE  DRAINAGE  AREA 

Second  to  the  Appalachian  region  so  far- as  present  develop- 
ments are  concerned,  but  probably  far  outranking  it  in  unworked 
reserve  tonnages,  is  the  region  lying  in  northwestern  Alabama, 
middle  Tennessee  and  western  Kentucky,  along  the  Tennessee 
River  drainage,  and  in  the  areas  drained  by  its  main  tributaries. 
This  great  iron  region  has  certain  interesting  historical  associa- 
tions, for  the  first  furnace  in  Alabama  was  built  to  utilize  these 
ores;  and,  at  the  other  end  of  the  district,  lies  the  scene  of  the 
first  serious  attempt  at  promotion  by  Thomas  Lawson — the  Three 
Rivers  project.  Scattered  all  over  the  intervening  territory  are 
the  ruins  of  old  charcoal  furnaces  and  forges,  while  six  or  eight 
furnaces  are  still  in  blast  on  these  ores  in  Alabama  and  Tennessee. 

This  brown-ore  region  lies  entirely  to  the  west  of  the  coal  fields 
of  Alabama  and  Tennessee,  and  the  ores  differ  in  geologic  associa- 
tions from  those  of  the  Appalachian  Valley.  They  are  asso- 
ciated with  limestones,  it  is  true,  but  in  the  Tennessee  area  these 
limestones  are  of  Lower  Carboniferous  age,  in  place  of  the 
Cambrian  and  Silurian  limestones  which  are  associated  with 
the  Appalachian  Valley  ores.  Another  point  of  difference,  the 
result  of  differing  geologic  history  of  the  two  regions,  is  with 
regard  to  the  attitude  of  the  rocks  and  the  ore  deposits.  In 
the  Appalachian  region  the  rocks  have  been  greatly  folded  and 
tilted,  so  that  both  ores  and  associated  rocks  rarely  lie  in  even 
approximately  horizontal  attitudes.  In  the  Tennessee  drainage 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES     235 

area,  on  the  other  hand,  the  folding  and  tilting  have  been  very 
slight;  the  rocks  dip  at  very  low  angles;  and  the  brown- ore  de- 
posits mantle  over  them  in  comparatively  regular  form.  Regular 
for  brown  ores,  that  is  to  say;  for  they  are  still  highly  pockety 
and  irregular  as  compared  with  red  ores  or  any  other  well-known 
type. 

The  area  included  in  the  Tennessee  drainage  which  may  fairly 
be  expected  to  be  productive  of  more  or  less  brown  ore  through- 
out its  extent  is  very  large.  From  its  southernmost  point  below 
Russellville,  Alabama  to  its  northern  limit  in  Kentucky,  the 
distance  is  almost  two  hundred  miles.  Its  width,  from  east  to 
west,  varies  from  five  to  twenty  miles  or  more.  There  is  thus  an 
extreme  area  of  perhaps  two  thousand  square  miles,  over  which 
brown-ore  deposits  are  scattered  more  or  less  thickly.  Of  this 
total  area,  close  geologic  study  will  probably  rule  out  nine-tenths, 
as  not  being  likely  to  contain  any  large  deposits,  but  this  leaves 
several  hundred  square  miles  of  very  promising  territory  within 
which  deposits  of  serious  size  are  likely  to  occur,  and  within 
which  a  very  large  tonnage  of  workable  ore  has  already  been 
developed. 

As  to  grade,  the  ores  of  the  Tennessee  Basin  seem  to  fall  some- 
where near  the  average  of  the  Appalachian  region  ores.  They 
never,  for  example,  are  as  poor  as  the  brown  ores  of  the  Virginia 
Oriskany  district;  while  on  the  other  hand  they  do  not  on  the 
•average  grade  as  high  as  some  of  the  best  Virginia  and  Alabama 
Appalachian  ores.  The  concentrating  ratio  is  also  about 
average.  Few  deposits  in  the  Tennessee  Basin  will  concentrate 
at  a  5  :3  ratio,  which  is  occasionally  found  further  east;  but  on 
the  other  hand  none  of  these  Tennessee  Basin  ores  require  a 
10  : 1  or  worse  concentration,  which  occasionally  is  necessary  in 
southwest  Virginia.  Taking  all  of  these  factors  into  consideration 
I  should  say  that  the  Tennessee  Basin  now  contains  a  far  larger 
tonnage  of  brown  ore  which  can  be  profitably  mined  and  con- 
centrated to  a  48  to  50  percent  grade  than  do  all  of  the 
Appalachian  Valley  deposits  together. 

The  following  publications  relate  to  the  brown  ores  of  this 
district. 

BURCHARD,    E.    F.     The   Brown   Iron   Ores   of  the   Russellville    District 

Bulletin  315,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  152-160.     1907. 
CALDWELL,   W.  B.     Report  on    the  Limonite  Ores  of    Trigg,  Lyon  and 


236  IRON  ORES 

Caldwell  Counties  (Kentucky).  Reports  Ky.  Geol.  Survey,  vol.  5, 
new  series,  pp.  251-264.  1880  . 

CHAUVENET,  W.  M.  Notes  on  the  Samples  of  Iron  Ore  Collected  in  Ken- 
tucky. Vol.  15,  Reports  Tenth  Census,  pp.  289-300.  1886. 

CHAUVENET,  W.  M.  Notes  on  the  Samples  of  Iron  Ore  Collected  in  Ten- 
essee.  Vol.  15,  Reports  Tenth  Census,  pp.  351-365.  1886. 

ECKEL,  E.  C.  Origin  of  the  Russellville  Ores.  Bulletin  400,  U.  S.  Geol. 
Survey,  pp.  149-150.  1910. 

HAUSMANN,  F.  W.  Brown  Ore  Mining  in  the  Russellville  District.  Stevens' 
Institute  Indicator,  January,  1908. 

BROWN  ORES  OF  NORTHEASTERN  TEXAS 

The  brown-ore  field  of  northeastern  Texas  covers  a  very  exten- 
sive area,  deposits  being  known  to  occur  in  at  least  the  following 
twenty  counties:  Camp,  Cass,  Marion,  Morris,  Upshur,  Wood, 
Harrison,  Van  Zandt,  Gregg,  Panola,  Smith,  Rusk,  Cherokee, 
Henderson,  Anderson,  Houston,  Nacogdoches,  Shelby,  Sabine  and 
San  Augustine.  Within  this  field  Kennedy  has  mapped  iron-ore 
districts  aggregating  over  1000  square  miles  in  area.  There  is  no 
question  whatever  as  to  the  areal  extent  or  large  total  tonnage  of 
the  ore  cocuring  in  this  field,  and  estimates  of  total  reserves  rang- 
ing 500  million  up  to  1,000  million  tons  may  be  accepted  as  well 
within  the  truth.  The  possibility  of  commercial  utilization  de- 
pends upon  factors  other  than  total  tonnage. 

The  ores  occur  in  approximately  horizontal  beds,  associated 
with  clays,  sands  and  greensands  of  Tertiary  age.  The  ore-bodies 
are  conformable  to  the  associated  beds  and  often  are  enclosed  in 
them,  but  this  is  not  necessarily  proof  that  the  ores  originated 
at  the  same  time  as  the  associated  sediments.  On  the  contrary, 
the  probability  seems  to  be  that  the  ores,  as  now  found,  were 
formed  at  a  somewhat  later  period  than  the  associated  sands  and 
clays,  though  these  formations  probably  contributed  some  or  all 
of  the  iron  needed  for  the  ores.  To  the  miner  the  question  of 
origin  has,  in  this  case,  but  one  practical  bearing,  in  other  words, 
on  the  probability  of  finding  in  depth  richer  or  larger  deposits 
than  those  now  exposed  at  the  surface  or  in  shallow  diggings. 
This  point  fortunately  is  not  involved  in  any  theoretical  differ- 
ences of  opinion  as  to  the  origin  of  the  Texas  brown  ores.  Under 
any  probable  hypothesis  it  may  as  well  be  understood  clearly 
that— 

(1)  As  to  size  of  deposit,  there  is  no  probability  that  thicker 
beds  will  occur  at  deeper  levels,  and 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES     237 


FIG.  38. — Map  of  Texas  brown-ore  district.     (Kennedy.) 


238  IRON  ORES 

(2)  As  to  richness  of  ores,  the  chances  are  that  the  richest  ores 
will  be  found  at  or  near  the  surface. 

Ore  Formation. — The  ore  occurs  in  the  form  of  relatively  large 
nodules,  or  in  platey  layers,  and  in  either  case  can  be  readily  and 
thoroughly  cleaned  from  the  accompanying  sand.  The  ore  frag- 
ments themselves,  however,  contain  fine  sand  grains,  so  that  the 
silica  content  of  the  clean  ore  is  usually  higher  than  might  be 
expected. 

An  extensive  series  of  analyses  made  on  samples  collected  by 
Kennedy  gave  the  following  average  result:  Metallic  iron,  46.63 
percent;  silica,  14.47  percent;  alumina,  8.17  percent;  sulphur, 
0.083  percent,  and  phosphorus,  0.172  percent. 

This  average  covers  the  results  of  131  samples,  taken  in  every 
part  of  the  Texas  brown-ore  area.  Of  course  individual  samples 
give  much  higher  results.  There  are  also  authentic  furnace  rec- 
ords showing  long  runs  on  ore  averaging  55  to  57  percent  iron, 
but  these  were,  in  the  cases  examined,  on  ore  which  had  been 
dried  previous  to  charging.  It  seems  probable  that  by  care  in 
handling,  shipments  could  be  made  for  large  tonnages  averaging 
about  50  percent  iron,  but  much  more  should  not  be  expected. 


[rg^l  SurFace  Sands      |MJ%iJ  °r?  Bed        E^J  Underlying  Clays,  Etc. 
FIG.  39. — Section  of  typical  brown-ore  deposit  in  Texas  district. 

Ore  Near  Surface. — The  ores  are  found  on  the  tops  of 
plateaus,  separated  by  sharp  little  ravines.  Along  the  sides  of 
the  ravines  ore  fragments  often  give  an  erroneous  idea  of  great 
average  thickness,  but  the  deposits,  when  in  place,  range  from  1 
foot  to  8  feet  or  10  feet  thick,  and  the  average  over  the 
entire  field  will  probably  fall  between  2  and  3  feet.  In  places  the 
ore  is  at  the  surface,  in  others  it  is  covered  by  a  few  inches  to 
5  or  6  feet  of  sand. 

Generally,  the  ores  are  of  good  grade  and  are  present  in  large 
total  quantity,  but  thin  beds.  They  can  be  mined  cheaply  and 
easily  at  any  given  point;  and  the  whole  problem  is  one  of  assem- 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES    239 

bling  a  tonnage  from  a  series  of  scattered  operations.  Transpor- 
tation to  the  coast  is  now  available  at  a  fair  rate,  and  the  ores 
could  be  laid  down  in  Baltimore  or  other  Atlantic  Coast  points 
at  prices  to  compete  with  Cuban  ores. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that,  in  this  discussion  of  the  Texas 
brown-ore  situation,  I  have  had  in  mind  the  whole  field,  and  not  any 
individual  property.  In  an  area  of  this  size  it  is  probable  enough 
that,  at  some  points,  the  ore-bodies  show  greater  thicknesses  than 
I  have  noted;  and  it  is  entirely  possible  that  large  tonnages  may 
be  mined  and  washed  to  show  a  higher  grade  than  has  been  assumed 
in  the  preceding  discussion.  But  these  are  matters  of  purely  in- 
dividual interest,  and  can  have  no  bearing  on  the  value  of  the 
field,  taken  as  a  whole. 

The  following  list  comprises  the  principal  publications  dealing 
with  the  brown  ores  of  northeastern  Texas.  Kennedy's  main  re- 
port of  1891  is,  of  course,  by  far  the  most  important  and  detailed. 
ECKEL,  E.  C.  The  Iron  Ores  of  Northeastern  Texas.  Bulletin  260,  U.  S. 

Geol.  Survey,  pp.  348-354.     1905. 
ECKEL,  E.  C.     The  Iron  Industry  of  Texas,  Present  and  Prospective.     Iron 

Age,  vol.  76,  pp.  478-479.     Aug.  24,  1905. 
JOHNSON,  L.  C.     Report  on  the  Iron  Regions  of  Northern  Louisiana  and 

Eastern  Texas.     House  Document  No.  195,  1st  session,  50th  Congress. 

1888. 
KENNEDY,  W.     Reports  on  the  Iron-ore  District  of  Eastern  Texas.     In 

2nd.  Ann.  Report  Texas  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  7-326.     1891. 
KENNEDY,    W.     Iron  Ores  of  East  Texas.     Trans.   Amer.   Inst.    Mining 

Engrs.-,  vol.  24,  pp.  258-288,  862-863.     1895. 

PENROSE,  R.  A.  F.     The  Tertiary  Iron  Ores  of  Arkansas  and  Texas.     Bulle- 
tin Geological  Society  America,  vol.  3,  pp.  44-50.     1892. 

MAGNETIC  AND  OTHER  ORES  OF  THE  CRYSTALLINE  AREA 

The  four  ore  districts  which  have  so  far  been  considered  carry  ores 
differing  in  grade,  origin  and  associations;  but  each  of  the  districts 
is  fairly  uniform,  within  itself,  in  these  regards.  This  is  not  the 
case  with  the  group  of  ores  which  remain  to  be  briefly  mentioned, 
for  they  differ  among  themselves  very  widely  in  all  of  these  re- 
spects. Their  only  point  of  agreement  is  in  the  area  which  in- 
cludes them,  and  in  the  general  type  of  rocks  with  which  they  are 
associated. 

By  reference  to  any  general  geological  map,  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  Appalachian  Valley  is  bordered  on  the  east  by 


240  IRON  ORES 

a  wide  area  of  crystalline  rocks.  These  rocks,  some  of  which 
are  igneous  and  others  of  metamorphic  origin,  include  slates, 
schists,  gneisses,  granites,  etc.  Scattered  along  this  area  we 
find  at  intervals  deposits  of  iron  ore  of  three  general  types. 
There  are  (1)  magnetite  deposits,  often  of  great  size  and  purity; 
(2)  specular  hematites,  varying  in  grade  and  character,  and  (3) 
brown  ores,  occurring  as  gossan  capping  pyrite  deposits. 

Some  of  the  ores  of  the  crystalline  area  have  been  long  worked 
and  are  well  known  geologically  and  industrially.  Among  these 
may  be  noted  the  magnetites  of  Cranberry,  N.  C.;  the  magnetites 
and  hematites  of  Pittsville  and  Rocky  Mount,  Va. ;  and  the  brown 
gossan  ores  from  Ducktown,  Tenn.  But  in  addition  to  these 
known  and  developed  deposits,  there  are  a  large  number  of  prom- 
ising areas  which  are  held  back  chiefly  by  lack  of  transportation 
facilities.  During  the  past  decade  three  new  railroads  have 
crossed  the  crystal  line  area  at  widely  separated  points — the 
Virginian,  the  Clinchfield,  and  the  Atlanta,  Birmingham  and 
Atlantic.  Each  of  these  has  opened  up  new  iron  territory,  and 
this  process  of  development  by  means  of  new  transportation 
lines  may  fairly  be  expected  to  continue  until  the  ores  of  the  crys- 
talline area  become  better  represented  among  the  shipments  of 
the  year. 

The  following  papers  and  reports  refer  to  the  magnetites  and 
specular  hematites  of  this  portion  of  the  southern  states. 

ECKEL,  E.  C      Gray  Hematites  of  Eastern  Alabama.     Iron  Trade  Review, 

Aug.  6,  1908. 
GRASTY,  J.  S.     The  Gray  Ores  of  Alabama     Manufacturer's   Record,  vol. 

50,  pp.  550-553.     1906. 
HOLDEN,  R.  J.     Iron  Ores  of  Virginia.     In  Mineral  Resources  of  Virginia, 

1907. 
NITZE,  H.  B.  C.     Iron  Ores  of  North  Carolina.     Bulletin  1,  N.  C.  Geol. 

Survey,  239  pages.     1893. 
SINGEWALD,  J.  T.     Report  on  the  Iron  Ores  of  Maryland.     Vol.  9,  part  3, 

Reports  Maryland  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  123-337.     1911 

SOUTHERN  IRON-ORE  REQUIREMENTS 

In  the  preceding  sections  of  this  chapter  the  iron  ores  and  chief 
ore  districts  of  the  southern  United  States  have  been  described, 
and  some  idea  given  as  to  the  large  ore  tonnages  which  are  avail- 
able in  some  of  these  districts.  It  will  be  of  interest  to  take  up 
the  question  of  southern  ore  requirements,  both  as  these  have 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES     241 

been  in  the  past,  and  as  they  are  likely  to  stand  in  future.  In 
doing  this,  our  conclusions  may  be  based  upon  the  growth  which 
the  southern  iron  and  steel  industry  has  shown,  the  condi- 
tions which  have  limited  that  growth,  and  the  conditions  which 
favor  it. 

Growth  of  Southern  Iron  Industry. — Statistics  relative  to  the 
iron  production  of  the  United  States,  during  the  period  from  the 
Revolution  until  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  are  scanty 
and  difficult  to  handle.  The  chief  difficulty  arises  from  the  fact 
that  in  most  of  the  earlier  statements  as  to  production  there  is 
confusion  between  pig  iron,  bar  iron  made  direct  from  ore,  and 
iron  wrought  from  the  pig.  In  the  South,  where  both  forges  and 
bloomaries  were  in  operation  until  very  recent  years,  the  oppor- 
tunities for  error  are  particularly  great. 

So  far  as  can  be  determined,  the  southern  states  made  almost 
exactly  one-fifth  of  the  total  iron  produced  in  1810;  and  this 
proportion  increased  quite  steadily,  reaching  its  maximum  prob- 
ably between  1840  and  1850.  From  this  date  on  the  southern 
share  of  the  total  dropped  rapidly,  for  the  Michigan  ranges  were 
now  beginning  to  ship  heavily  to  northern  and  eastern  furnaces. 
The  data  available  for  the  two  decades  preceding  the  war  and 
for  the  decade  following  it  are  as  follows: 

Date  U.  S.  output,  Southern  Southern  per- 

tons  output,  tons  centage  of  tota 

1840  286,903                             *  125.9 

1850  563,775  131,541  23.4 

1854  724,000  130,198  17.9 

1856  812,000  124,752  15.3 

1860  987,559                             *  12.8 

1870  1,832,875                             *  8.6 

The  history  of  the  Southern  iron  and  steel  industry  during  the 
war  has  never  been  written,  though  scattered  details  concerning 
its  development  in  individual  states  can  be  found  in  different 
volumes,  and  Miss  Armes  has  given  us  an  adequate  and  interest- 
ing discussion  of  Jts  status  in  Alabama.  Here  it  need  only  be 
said  that  war  was  a  harsh  and  pressing  schoolmaster,  and  that 
the  wonder  is  that  southern  legislators  have  so  soon  forgotten  the 
lessons  then  impressed.  As  early  as  the  fall  of  1861  it  was 
*  Calculated  iron  ore  consumption  or  value  of  product. 

16 


242  IRON  ORES 

understood  that  man  cannot  live  by  cotton  alone;  and  that  in 
modern  war  courage  and  devotion  must  be  reinforced  by  material 
supplies  if  a  long  struggle  is  to  be  successfully  prosecuted. 
Under  the  encouraging  influence  of  the  coast  blockade,  which  was 
as  successful  as  a  high  tariff  in  preventing  imports,  the  indust- 
ries of  the  South,  heretofore  neglected  in  favor  of  agriculture, 
grew  at  a  really  remarkable  rate.  Had  these  favoring  conditions 
persisted,  it  Ks  certain  that  the  South  would  now  be  a  great  manu- 
facturing nation,  and  that  many  idle  economic  theories  would  be 
looked  upon  as  outgrown. 

But  the  development  thus  started  was  not  to  continue  at  that 
time.  The  battles  of  1862  resulted  in  the  practical  isolation  of 
the  southwestern  states,  and  in  the  destruction  of  the  west 
Tennessee  iron  industry.  The  furnaces  and  mills  of  southwestern 
Virginia  and  northwest  Georgia  kept  in  operation,  with  few 
exceptions,  until  the  summer  of  1864;  while  Brierfield  and  other 
Alabama  furnace  and  the  Selma  works  held  on  until  the  closing 
days,  in  the  spring  of  1865.  As  to  the  output,  few  definite  data 
are  available.  In  1860  the  southern  states  were  making  some- 
what over  120,000  tons  of  pig  iron  annually.  It  is  probable  that 
during  1861  and  1862  this  was  greatly  exceeded,  but  from  that 
time  on  the  output  fell  off  as  furnaces  and  mills  were  destroyed. 
I  have  assumed  that  in  1865  the  south  was  not  making  over 
5  percent  of  the  American  total,  even  allowing  for  the  fact  that 
the  Maryland,  Kentucky  and  Missouri  furnaces  had  mostly 
escaped  interference  throughout  the  war. 

The  recovery  after  peace  came  was  not  so  sudden  as  has  been 
intimated  by  popular  essayists.  We  know  that  the  ghastly  farce 
called  Reconstruction  did  not,  in  fact,  look  toward  the  physical 
reconstruction  of  the  ruined  commonwealths;  and  so  far  as  indi- 
vidual effort  was  concerned  food  supplies,  and  readily  salable 
cotton,  were  more  important  than  manufactures.  In  1870,  at 
any  rate,  the  South  had  recovered  only  so  far  as  to  produce  a 
little  over  8  percent  of  the  American  total  iron  output.  But 
in  the  decade  which  followed,  progress  was  much  more  rapid,  so 
that  by  1875  the  southern  proportion  had  risen  to  over  12  per- 
cent, which  was  about  held  in  1880. 

From  this  time  on,  there  has  been  an  almost  uninterrupted 
growth  in  the  annual  output  of  Southern  pig  iron  up  to  the  pres- 
ent day,  the  temporary  decreases  shown  during  bad  business 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES    243 


years  being  unimportant.  The  proportion  which  this  Southern 
output  bears  to  the  American  total,  however,  has  shown  greater 
variations.  From  1880  on,  this  proportion  increased  quite 
regularly,  reaching  in  1893  its  maximum  of  22J  percent.  After 
that  date  the  ratio  decreased,  and  during  the  past  eight  years  it 
has  ranged  between  12  and  15  percent  of  the  total  output  of  the 
United  States. 


PIG-IRON  OUTPUT  1880-1910 


Year 


1880 
1885 
1890 
1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 
1901 
1902 
1903 
1904 
1905 
1906 
1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 


Total  U.S. 


3,835,191 

4,044,526 

9,202,703 

8,279,870 

9,157,000 

7,124,502 

6,657,388 

9,446308 

8,623,127 

9,652,680 

11,773,934 

13,620,703 

13,789,242 

15,878,354 

17,821,307 

18,009,252 

16,497,033 

22,992,380 

25,307,191 

25,781,361 

15,936,018 

25,795,471 

27,303,567 


South 


448,978 
682,359 
1,833,937 
1,738,194 
1,947,187 
1,599,659 
1,274,947 
1729,606 
1,846,999 
1,937,229 
2,133,514 
2  398,881 
2,642,720 
2,626,387 
3,085,957 
3,287,522 
2,775,215 
3,279,370 
3,525,119 
3,493,772 
2,369,741 
3188,091 
3,447,291 


Ratio, 

Southern 

to  total 

percent 

11.7 

16.9 
19.9 
21.0 
21.3 
22.5 
19.2 
18.3 
21 .4 
20.1 
18.1 
17.6 
19.1 
16.6 
17.3 
18.3 
16.8 
14.3 
13.9 
13.7 
14.9 
12.4 
12.6 


The  actual  tonnage  annually  produced  in  the  south  has  in- 
creased, since  1880,  from  less  than  half  a  million  tons  to  consider- 
ably over  three  million  tons.  The  northern  output,  however, 
has  increased  at  practically  a  similar  rate,  so  that  in  1912  the 
South  shows  little  or  no  proportionate  advance  from  its  relative 
position  in  1880;  and  a  distance  falling  off  from  the  position  which 
it  assumed  during  the  early  nineties.  It  is  clear  enough  that  the 
relative  decrease  shown  during  the  years  from  1893  to  1905  was 


244  IRON  ORES 

due  in  most  part  to  the  opening  of  the  Mesabi  range  in  Minnesota, 
which  since  1892  has  been  sending  down  a  steadily  increasing 
tonnage  of  ore  to  eastern  furnaces.  For  the  past  eight  years, 
as  has  been  previously  noted,  the  South  has  just  about  maintained 
its  relative  position.  It  will  be  serviceable  if  we  can  determine, 
from  some  study  of  the  raw  materials  and  markets  available, 
what  the  probabilities  are  as  to  the  future  growth,  both  relative 
and  actual,  of  the  Southern  iron  and  steel  industries.  The  matter 
of  iron-ore  supply  has  already  been  discussed,  but  some  space 
may  be  given  to  consideration  of  Southern  coal  reserves. 

Southern  Coal  Reserves. — So  far  as  supplies  of  coal  are  con- 
cerned, the  South  has  little  reason  to  avoid  comparison  with  any 
of  the  states  east  of  the  Great  Plains;  and  when  we  discuss  the 
prospects  of  American  steel  development  we  may,  for  all  practical 
purposes,  disregard  the  states  west  of  the  Missouri  River.  In 
the  present  paper,  therefore,  the  comparisons  made  will  refer  only 
to  the  area  east  of  the  100th  meridian. 

The  latest  figures  on  coal  reserves  which  are  available  at  the 
date  of  writing,  are  the  summaries  by  E.  W.  Parker  published  in 
the  annual  volume  Mineral  Resources  of  the  United  States  for 
1911.  In  his  report  on  Coal  for  that  year  Mr.  Parker  furnishes 
data  on  the  unmined  coal  tonnages  still  remaining  in  the  various 
states.  These  figures  I  have  rearranged  so  as  to  better  serve  the 
purposes  of  the  present  discussion. 

At  the  close  of  1911,  the  Geological  Survey  estimates  that 
there  were  still  remaining  in  the  United  States,  excluding  Alaska, 
somewhat  over  three  million  million  tons  of  coal,  of  all  kinds. 
Of  this  enormous  reserve,  practically  two-thirds  exists  in  the 
area  west  of  the  100th  meridian,  including  the  states  of  the 
Great  Plains,  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  Great  Basin  and  the 
Pacific  Coast.  As  a  basis  for  general  manufacturing,  this  far 
western  tonnage  is  highly  important;  but  as  related  to  a  possible 
steel  industry  it  becomes  almost  negligeable,  for  unfortunately 
it  is  not  balanced  by  a  corresponding  development  of  iron  ores  in 
the  western  country.  So  that  in  our  present  discussion  we 
may  fairly  disregard  the  western  coal  reserves,  and  concentrate 
attention  of  the  unmined  coal  tonnage  which  still  exists  in  the 
states-  east  of  the  Great  Plains. 

In  the  portion  of  the  United  States  to  which  our  attention  is 
thus  limited  the  Geological  Survey  estimates  a  total  coal  reserve 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES    245 

of  slightly  over  one  million  million  tons.  About  half  of  this 
total  occurs  in  the  southern  states,  as  that  term  is  applied 
throughout  this  publication.  The  exact  division  by  states  is  as 
follows : 

COAL  RESERVES  OF  THE  SOUTH 

State  Tons 

Alabama 68,572,000,000 

Arkansas 1,839,000,000 

.     Georgia 920,000,000 

Kentucky 103,771,000,000 

Maryland 7,795,000,000 

Missouri    39,833,000,000 

North  Carolina 199,000,000 

Oklahoma    79,201,000,000 

Tennessee    25,499,000,000 

Texas   30,967,000,000 

Virginia 22,380,000,000 

West  Virginia   149,026,000,000 


Total  Southern  coal  reserve 530,002,000,000 

Of  this  total  tonnage,  practically  all  is  good  bituminous  coal, 
though  the  Texas  total  includes  a  notable  proportion  of  lignite. 
In  the  other  states,  however,  we  may  fairly  consider  that  all  of 
the  tonnage  estimated  is  coal  suitable  for  general  manufacturing 
uses;  that  most  of  it  can  be  coked  if  proper  processes  be  used; 
and  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  it  is  strictly  " coking  coal" 
as  that  term  is  applied  to-day  by  those  who  think  in  terms  of  the 
bee-hive  oven. 

During  1911  the  Southern  States  mined  117,625,019  tons  of 
coal.  At  this  rate  of  consumption,  the  southern  coal  supply 
would  last  for  some  three  or  four  thousand  years;  so  that  we  can 
contemplate  a  considerable  increase  in  the  rate  of  southern  coal 
mining  without  becoming  alarmed  over  the  impending  exhaustion 
of  the  coal  supply.  Even  an  ardent  conservationist  would  find 
it  difficult  to  really  make  much  capital  out  of  figures  of  this  type. 

One  may  note,  in  passing,  just  how  seriously  this  line  of  reason- 
ing affects  certain  investigations  and  prosecutions  which  have 
been  much  in  the  public  eye  during  the  past  year  or  two.  In  the 
appraisal  report  of  1904,  for  example,  the  Tennessee  Coal,  Iron 
and  Railroad  Company  was  credited  with  the  ownership,  either 
in  fee  or  under  lease,  of  1,623,639,500  tons  of  coal  of  all  classes. 
This  tonnage  seems  enormous,  when  written  out  in  full,  and  it 


246  IRON  ORES 

would  be  an  excessive  supply  for  the  ordinary  citizen,  purchasing 
coal  only  for  domestic  use.  But  when  it  is  compared  with  the 
68  million  million  tons  which  the  official  reports  credit  to  the 
state  of  Alabama,  the  T.  C.  I.  tonnage  becomes  a  very  small 
fraction  of  the  total,  amounting  to  about  2J  percent  of  the 
State's  reserve.  The  " unparalleled  and  enormous"  coal  reserves 
of  the  Tennessee  Company,  which  were  referred  to  in  such  a  way 
as  to  give  the  impression  that  they  constituted  an  effective 
monopoly  of  the  Southern  coal  supply,  do  not  after  all  seem  so 
large  when  compared  with  the  total  available  tonnages.  The 
same  difficulty  has  arisen  elsewhere,  as  in  the  western  states  and 
Alaska,  where  the  conservation  idea  has  been  applied  too  rigidly 
to  supplies  of  coal  far  beyond  the  necessities  of  the  next  ten 
thousand  years. 

Recurring  to  our  immediate  study,  it  is  clear  that  the  coal 
reserves  of  the  south  are  so  large  that  exhaustion  of  the  coal  sup- 
ply will  nofc  be  the  factor  to  bring  about  a  slowing  down  in  the 
rate  of  southern  steel  development.  The  coal  supplies  of  this 
section  are  far  beyond  any  probable  future  requirements  of  its 
iron  industry;  they  are  well  distributed  throughout  the  various 
states;  and  they  include  a  far  larger  proportion  of  strictly  "  coking 
coal"  than  do  the  reserves  of  any  other  section  of  the  United 
States. 

Southern  Market  Conditions. — Three  features  stand  out 
prominently  when  the  southern  iron- industry  is  studied  from  a 
commercial  standpoint.  These  are  (1)  that  until  very  recently 
all  of  the  southern  output  was  marketed  in  the  form  of  pig  iron, 
and  that  even  now  most  of  it  is  still  sold  in  that  form;  (2)  that 
the  bulk  of  the  output  is  marketed  at  points  far  from  the  furnace, 
and  is  subject  to  heavy  freight  charges;  and  (3)  that  the  market 
price  of  southern  pig  is  always  lower,  and  usually  much  lower, 
than  that  of  similar  grades  at  northern  and  eastern  furnaces. 
These  three  points  of  interest  may  be  separately  discussed,  though 
they  are  all  inter-related  very  closely. 

(1)  The  south  has  always  been  an  important  producer  of 
foundry  irons,  while  a  considerable  tonnage  of  steel-making  pig 
has  been  shipped  from  Virginia  for  conversion  elsewhere.  As  a 
result,  even  at  present  considerably  less  than  half  of  the  total 
pig  iron  produced  in  the  south  is  converted  into  steel  at  southern 
plants;  while  until  quite  recently  the. proportion  thus  converted 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES     247 

locally  was  even  less  important.  Of  course,  so  long  as  the  acid 
Bessemer  process  was  the  principal  steel-making  method,  this 
condition  could  not  be  changed,  for  low-phosphorus  ores  are  al- 
most non-existent  in  the  south.  But  as  things  stand  now  this 
difficulty  is  done  away  with  to  a  large  extent,  and  the  further 
development  of  southern  steel-making  will  be  limited  not  by 
technical  factors  but  by  questions  of  capital  and  markets.  If 
the  market  becomes  broad  enough  to  justify  it,  we  may  expect 
that  capital  will  in  time  be  provided  to  erect  steel-making  and 
finishing  plants  for  such  furnace-groups  as  have  supplies  of  ore 
and  coal  enough  to  justify  the  increased  investment. 

(2)  The  fact  that  local  foundry  development  was  never  suffi- 
cient to  take  up  any  large  proportion  of  the  pig  iron  produced  in 
the  south,  had  of  course  the  effect  of  forcing  southern  furnaces 
to  ship  north  and  west  into  competitive  markets.  Even  now, 
with  a  fair  degree  of  steel  production  in  the  south,  a  large  portion 
of  southern  pig  metal  still  goes  to  very  distant  markets.  The 
extent  to  which  this  distant  shipping  was  carried  on  can  be  best 
understood  if  we  take  up  a  specific  case,  and  fortunately  the 
statistics  for  one  of  the  largest  southern  companies  are  available. 

For  many  years  the  Tennessee  Coal,  Iron  and  Railroad  Com- 
pany has  been  one  of  the  largest  pig-iron  producers  in  the  South. 
During  quite  recent  years  it  has  also  become  a  steel  producer, 
but  during  its  early  history  all  of  its  product  was  marketed  as  pig 
iron.  Its  pig-iron  sales  now  are  relatively  small  in  ordinary 
years,  though  the  possibility  that  they  will  be  made  exerts  an 
influence  over  southern  market  conditions.  The  following 
detailed  figures  of  production  and  shipments  to  various  markets 
during  1888  and  1899  are  probably  fairly  representative  of  the 
general  southern  shipments  during  those  years.  They  have 
also  been  reduced  to  percentages  for  convenience  of  comparison. 

1888  1899 

Tons  Tons 

shipped        Percent          shipped          Percent 

New  York  and  New  England    30,567  14  75,270  10 

Penn.,Ohio,  Ind.,  111.,  etc 138,481  62  485,090  63 

Southern  States    50,406  22  102,735  13 

Western  and  Pacific  States    5,305  2  28,735  4 

Foreign  shipments   0  0  75,390  10 


Total  shipments 224,759         100         767,220       100 


248  IRON  ORES 

Though  the  management  of  the  company  pointed  to  these 
exhibits  with  evident  pride,  it  is  clear  enough  that  they  are  not 
really  things  to  be  proud  of,  and  that  the  distribution  of  ship- 
ments shown  in  them  gives  some  clue  to  the  relatively  slow 
growth  of  the  southern  iron  industry  in  general.  During  later 
years  things  improved  in  this  regard,  and  for  1907  the  same  com- 
pany distributed  its  total  product  as  follows: 

Sold  as  pig  iron    315,573  tons 

Converted  into  steel    287,254  tons 


Total  iron  output 602,827  tons 

It  is  probably  correct  enough  to  say  that  of  its  total  iron  output, 
60  percent  or  more  was  in  1907  used  locally,  as  compared  with 
the  13  percent  so  used  in  1899.  In  the  past  few  years  the  per- 
centage converted  or  sold  locally  has  grown  still  higher,  and  here- 
after it  is  probable  that  in  good  business  years  the  entire  output 
will  be  locally  used. 

This  particular  instance  has  been  followed  out  in  detail  because 
the  exact  figures  happen  to  be  available,  but  it  throws  light  on 
general  conditions  in  the  southern  industry  during  the  past  few 
decades.  Iron  has  been  produced  cheaply,  and  shipped  to  great 
distances  in  order  to  find  a  sufficiently  broad  market.  This 
brings  us  directly  to  the  price  question. 

(3)  It  might  of  course  be  said  that  distant  shipment  does  not 
affect  prices,  since  prices  are  quoted  at  furnace,  and  freight  rates 
are  added  to  these  base  prices.  This  would  be  true  enough  if 
only  a  small  proportion  of  the  total  output  of  any  district  was 
sold  at  distant  markets.  But  when,  as  in  the  case  of  southern 
iron,  practically  all  of  the  output  was  sold  in  distant  markets  in 
direct  competition  with  northern  irons,  the  Birmingham  price  was 
practically  the  northern  market  price  less  freight.  All  the 
advantages  of  cheap  raw  materials  and  low  assembling  costs  were 
thrown  away  as  soon  as  the  bulk  of  the  product  was  shipped  into 
distant  competitive  markets;  and  southern  furnaces  have  in 
consequence  shown  less  profits  than  those  in  the  north.  The 
prospects  of  improvement  in  this  regard  will  be  noted  later. 

Future  Market  Possibilities. — In  discussing  the  market 
conditions  which  have  limited  southern  iron  development  in  the 
past,  we  have  in  reality  outlined  many  of  the  points  on  which  the 


IRON  ORES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  UNITED  STATES     249 

hope  of  future  growth  must  depend.  It  is  clear  enough  that  the 
southern  supply  of  raw  materials  is  sufficient  to  justify  a  far 
greater  iron  output  than  now  exists.  It  is  also  clear  that  pig  iron 
can  be  made  cheaply  at  several  points  in  the  south,  though  this 
fact  is  no  justification  for  also  selling  it  cheaply.  And  as  regards 
the  fact  itself,  unusually  low  figures  of  cost  must  be  accepted 
with  some  caution.  A  company  which  runs  its  furnaces  without 
lining,  or  its  mines  without  roofs,  can  show  good  paper  costs  for 
a  time;  but  there  is  a  natural  limit  to  that  sort  of  thing,  and  if  it  is 
practised  too  long  the  receivers  are  apt  to  have  a  bad  mess  to 
clear  up.  There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  misunderstanding 
concerning  low-cost  southern  iron  in  the  past,  but  this  is  disap- 
pearing as  accounting  methods  are  becoming  more  uniform. 

For  our  present  purposes  we  may  assume  that  the  bulk  of  .the 
southern  tonnage  is  produced  at  a  total  cost  of  several  dollars 
per  ton  cheaper  than  the  bulk  of  northern  iron;  but  that  market 
conditions  in  the  past  have  been  such  that  this  lower  cost  did  not 
mean  higher  or  even  equal  profits  per  ton.  It  is  evident  that 
even  with  an  ample  supply  of  raw  materials  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  capital  to  finance  any  large  expansion  of  the  industry 
under  such  conditions.  Growth  of  the  southern  steel  and  iron 
industry  must  depend  on  improvement  of  conditions  in  the 
territory  'naturally  tributary  to  southern  furnaces  and  mills,  so 
that  this  territory  is  capable  of  absorbing  an  increased  output  at 
somewhat  fairer  prices  than  have  prevailed  in  the  past. 

The  Southern  states  themselves  contain  slightly  over  one-third 
of  the  population  of  the  entire  United  States.  Of  course  some 
of  the  south  can  be  reached  most  economically  from  northern 
points,  but  on  the  other  hand  Alabama  mills  have  some  natural 
territory  in  the  west,  and  Virginia  and  Maryland  have  market 
areas  to  the  northward.  So  that  in  any  general  consideration  of 
the  matter  we  may  safely  assume  that  the  territory  naturally 
tributary  to  southern  furnaces  and  mills  contains  one-third  of  the 
American  population.  But  it  is  often  overlooked  that,  in  other 
regards,  it  is  not  average  market  ground.  Its  agricultural  values 
are  high,  but  its  manufacturing  is  still  relatively  deficient;  its 
railroad  mileage  until  recently  was  below  the  average;  and  in 
some  other  respects  it  has  in  the  past  consumed  less  iron  and 
steel,  per  capita,  than  the  remainder  of  the  United  States.  These 
facts  are  conveniently  summarized  in  the  following  table,  which 


250 


IRON  ORES 


also  serves  to  indicate  how  conditions  are  changing  in  these 
regards. 

SOUTHERN  MARKET  FACTORS,  1880-1910 


1880 

1890 

1900 

1910 

Population,  total  

18,614,925 

22,538,751 

27,445,457 

32,480,343 

Percent.,  U.  S  

36.9 

35.8 

36.1 

35.3 

Railroad    mileage,      total 
miles. 
Percent,  U.  S  
Capital  in  manufactures, 
dollars. 
Percent   U   S 

24,866 

26.7 
$329,753,000 

11  8 

50,350 

30.2 
$848,868,000 

13  0 

61,880 

31.8 
$1,408,866,000 

14  3 

87,084 

35.5 
$2,884,666,000 

15  5 

Annual  manufactured  pro- 
ducts, dollars. 
Percent,  US            ... 

$622,840,000 
11  6 

$1,242,581,000 
13  2 

$1,860,113,000 
14  3 

$3,158,107,000 
15.2 

Coal  production,  tons  
Percent,  U.   S  
Pig-iron  output,  tons  
Percent,  U.  S  

7,002,254 
9.8 
448,978 
11.7 

24,925,345 
15.8 
1,833,937 
19.9 

54,510,460 
20.2 
2,642,720 
19.1 

120,856,340 
24.1 
3,447,291 
12.6 

On  examining  the  data  presented  in  the  foregoing  table,  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  southern  states  have  held  their  relative  proportion 
of  the  total  population  quite  steadily,  showing  only  slight  changes 
in  this  regard  over  the  past  thirty  years.  But  in  the  factors 
which  make  for  increased  iron  and  steel  consumption  they  have 
advanced  very  rapidly.  Railroad  mileage  has  increased  from 
26.7  percent  of  the  American  total  in  1880  to  35.5  percent  in 
1910;  and  the  relative  gains  in  both  the  capital  invested  in  manu- 
facturing industries  and  in  the  total  annual  production  of  those 
industries  has  been  particularly  marked.  Concurrently  with  these 
advances  in  industrial  development,  the  coal  production  of  the 
south  has  gained  remarkably,  as  compared  with  that  of  the 
remainder  of  the  United  States.  The  iron  production  alone  has 
shown  no  serious  gain  in  relative  status;  and  this  fact  of  itself  is 
sufficient  to  indicate  that  the  southern  iron  market  is  far  from 
being  overbuilt  at  the  present  moment.  With  such  rapid 
increases  in  general  manufacturing  and  coal  output,  and  with  the 
increased  railroad  mileage  which  these  advances  will  in  turn 
require,  it  seems  clear  that  the  territory  strictly  tributary  to 
southern  mills  and  furnaces  is  gaining  rapidly  in  its  capacity  for 
iron  and  steel  consumption;  and  that  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  this  gain  will  continue  in  the  future.  This  implies 
that  heavily  increased  productive  capacity  must  be  supplied 
very  shortly,  with  the  prospect  that  the  returns  on  investment  in 
such  increased  furnace  and  mill  capacity  will  be  attractive 
enough  to  stimulate  investment. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
THE  NORTHEASTERN  UNITED  STATES 

The  northeastern  district,  which  includes  New  England,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  now  produces  only 
about  5  percent  of  the  total  iron-ore  output  of  the  United 
States.  This  present  rate  of  output,  however,  should  not  be 
taken  as  a  measure  of  the  ultimate  importance  of  the  district,  for 
it  contains  reserves  of  ore  which  both  in  grade  and  in  quantity 
are  deserving  of  serious  attention,  and  will^ become  more  impor- 
tant as  the  shipping  grade  of  the  Lake  ores  decreases. 

General  Distribution. — The  iron  ores  of  the  northeastern  dis- 
trict are  varied  in  type,  and  widely  distributed  throughout  the 
region.  It  is  possible,  however,  to  group  the  bulk  of  the  ores 
under  three  main  types,  though  several  other  less  important 
classes  also  require  mention.  The  classes,  with  their  general 
distribution,  are  as  follows; 

1.  Magnetite  ores,  occurring  in  the  crystalline  rocks  of  the 
Adirondacks  and  Hudson  Highlands  of  New  York,  in  the  High- 
lands of  New  Jersey,  and  in  southeastern  Pennsylvania.     These 
ores  agree  in  being  magnetites,  and  in  their  universal  association 
with  igneous  or  metamorphic  rocks,  but  differ  among  themselves 
in  origin,  character  and  geologic  relations.     In  most  cases  they 
require  concentration,  but  the  resulting  concentrate  can  usually 
be  made  of  high  grade  within  commercial  limits  as  to  expense. 

2.  Red  hematites  of  Clinton  age,  like  those  of  the  Birmingham 
district,  are  also  found  in  large  quantity  in  the  northeastern 
district.     Here  they  outcrop  along  a  belt  extending  from  near 
Rochester  to  near  Utica,  New  York.     South  of  this,  the  ores  do 
not  show  in  workable  tonnage  until  we  reach  Pennsylvania, 
where  they  have  been  important  sources  of  iron  in  the  past  and 
still  contain  large  reserves. 

3.  Brown  ores  occur  in  scattered  deposits  in  the  limestone 
valleys  of  western  New  England,  southeastern  New  York,  north- 
ern New  Jersey,  and  eastern  and  central  Pennsylvania.     These 

251 


252 


IRON  ORES 


ores  have  been  extensively  used  locally,  and  in  many  localities 
would  probably  repay  further  development. 

In  addition  to  the  three  main  types  above  mentioned,  note 
must  be  made  of  the  extensive  though  low-grade  carbonate  ores 
of  Ohio,  and  of  the  red  hematites  of  the  western  Adirondack 
region  of  New  York. 

In  discussing  the  ores  of  the  northeastern  states,  the  grouping 
adopted  will  be  based  on  both  geological  and  commercial  consid- 


|  Cambro-  S/lunc 
Sediments 
I  Granite  Syenite  ana 
\      Acidic  Gneiss 


(•port 


V         ,£l/^± 

/            \r^-^j!= 

Hematite  Deposits.  . 
9  Titaniferous  Magnetites 


Nontitaniferous 

Magnetites 


FIG.  40. — Map  of  Adirondack  iron-ore  region.     (Newland.) 

erations.  The  magnetites  occur  in  three  quite  distinct  areas  and 
associations;  and  the  magnetic  ores  of  the  Adirondacks,  of  south- 
eastern New  York  and  northern  New  Jersey,  and  of  southeastern 
Pennsylvania  will  therefore  be  discussed  separately  in  the  order 
named.  At  present  these  magnetic  ores  are  by  far  the  most 
important  ores  of  the  states  now  under  discussion.  But  there 
are  also  brown  ore  deposits  of  some  importance,  Clinton  red 


THE  NORTHEASTERN  UNITED  STATES        253 


hematites  of  future  promise,  and  a  few  carbonates  and  red  hema- 
tites of  other  type  which  require  brief  mention.  These  ores  will 
accordingly  be  briefly  described  after  the  magnetites. 

MAGNETITES  OF  THE  ADIRONDACK  REGION,  NEW  YORK 

The  Adirondack  region,  in  the  northeastern  part  of  New  York 
State,   comprises  a  roughly  circular  area  of  crystalline  rocks, 


FIG.  41. — Sketch  map  of  Mineville  range.     (After  Kemp.) 

something  over  100  miles  in  width  from  east  to  west,  and  per- 
haps averaging  about  125  miles  from  north  to  south.  The  entire 
area  thus  includes  about  12,000  square  miles  at  the  most;  and 


254 


IRON  ORES 


much  of  this  total  must  be  looked  upon  as  possible  iron-bearing 
territory. 

The  rocks  are  of  pre-Cambrian  age;  and  include  an  old  series 
of  gneisses,  a  later  series  of  schists  and  crystalline  limestones, 
and  igneous  rocks  of  various  ages.  One  particular  group  of  these 
igneous  rocks — a  series  of  gabbros  and  other  basic  rocks — is  of 
special  interest  as  carrying  the  titaniferous  ore-bodies  of  the 
region. 

The  normal  or  non-titaniferous  magnetites  are  associated,  in 
various  places,  both  with  the  older  gneisses  and  with  the  later 
schists  and  limestones;  but  the  main  masses  now  worked  are 


DICKSON  VEIN 


HALL  SLOPE. 


FIG.  42. — Cross-section  of  Lyon  Mt.  deposit.     (Newland.) 

those  associated  with  the  gneisses.  The  ores  occur  in  tabular 
or  lenticular  masses,  and  the  individual  deposits  can  be  followed 
for  distances  of  miles.  They  have  been  ascribed  both  to  direct 
igneous  origin  and  to  contact  replacement.  The  field  relations 
seem  to  negative  the  first  possibility,  and  to  suggest  some  type 
of  replacement  as  being  the  more  probable  source  of  the  deposits. 
In  a  few  instances,  it  is  true,  the  relations  would  even  seem  to 
suggest  a  more  direct  sedimentary  origin,  but  study  of  these 
particular  deposits  is  not  sufficiently  advanced  to  take  this  sug- 
gestion seriously  at  present. 

The  ores  vary  considerably,  in  their  natural  state,  with  regard 
to  certain  phases  of  composition.     With  the  exception  of  a  few 


THE  NORTHEASTERN  UNITED  STATES        255 

deposits  near  Lake  George,  they  are  low  in  sulphur.  As  regards 
phosphorus,  they  vary  from  the  exceptionally  low-phosphorus 
ores  of  Lyon  Mountain  to  the  high-phosphorus  ores  of  Salisbury 
and  Mineville.  The  iron. content  varies  from  the  almost  pure 
magnetite  found  in  some  of  the  Mineville  openings  down  to  the 
22  or  25  per  cent,  of  iron  which  at  present  is  the  lower  limit  for 
profitable  concentration.  As  the  Adirondack  ore  reserves  are 
figured  to-day,  the  average  ore  of  the  region  would  probably 
fall  not  much  above  35  percent  metallic  iron.  This  means  that 
the  typical  ore  is  about  half  magnetite  and  half  gangue  rock  by 
weight. 

The  following  publications  refer  to  the  magnetites  and  other 
ores  of  the  Adirondack  region  in  New  York  State. 


SCALE  OF  FEET 

0  .       50        100  K>0 


FIG.  43. — Cross-section  of  Benson  deposit.     (Newland.) 

KEMP,  J.  F.     The  Geology  of  the  Magnetites  near  Port  Henry.     Trans. 

Amer.  Inst.  Mining  Engrs.,  vol.  27,  pp.  146-203.     1897. 
KEMP,  J.  F.     The  Titaniferous  Iron  Ores  of  the  Adirondacks.     19th  Ann. 

Rep.  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  part  3,  pp.  277-422.     1899. 
NEWLAND,  D.  H.,  and  KEMP,  J.  F.     Geology  of  the  Adirondack  Magnetic 

Iron  Ores.     Bulletin  119,  New  York  State  Museum.     1908. 
NEWLAND,  D.  H.     On  the  Association  and  Origin  of  the  Non-titaniferous 

Magnetites  in  the  Adirondack  Region.     Economic  Geology,  vol.  2,  pp. 

763-773.     1907. 
SMOCK,  J.  C.     Iron  Mines  and  Iron  Ore  Districts  of  New  York.     Bulletin  7, 

New  York  State  Museum.     1889. 
STOLTZ,  G.  C.     The  Cheever  Mines,  Port  Henry,  N.  Y.     Eng.  and  Mining 

Journal,  Oct.  21,  1911. 

MAGNETITES  OF  NEW  JERSEY  AND  NEW  YORK  HIGHLANDS 

The  Highlands  of  the  Hudson,  in  Putnam  and  Orange  counties, 
New  York,  are  made  up  chiefly  of  pre-Cambrian  crystalline  rocks; 
gneisses  of  uncertain  origin,  schists  and  crystalline  limestones, 
and  later  granites  and  basic  igneous  rocks.  This  belt  crosses 


256  IRON  ORES 

New  Jersey  in  a  southwesterly  direction.  Throughout  its  entire 
extent,  both  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  it  contains  numerous 
deposits  of  magnetite.  Some  of  these  have  been  worked  for 
considerably  over  a  century,  and  .are  still  producing.  The 
importance  of  the  district,  minimized  for  a  time  by  developments 
elsewhere,  is  likely  to  increase  in  a  moderate  way  during  the  next 
period  of  iron  expansion. 

Any  adequate  explanation  of  the  origin  of  these  magnetite 
deposits  must  take  into  consideration  certain  structural  and  other 
relations  which  they  exhibit  almost  universally  (1)  their  flattened, 
lens-like  or  bed-shaped  form,  (2)  their  general  conformity  to  the 
foliation  of  the  inclosing  rocks,  (3)  their  occurrence  along  certain 
definite  belts  whose  trend  is  closely  parallel  to  the  strike  of  the 
inclosing  rocks,  (4)  their  frequent  (or  general)  association  with 
bodies  of  crystalline  limestone. 

A  brief  consideration  of  these  general  relations  will  serve  to 
show  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  reconcile  them  with  any  theory 
involving  the  direct  igneous  origin  of  the  magnetite  deposits. 
Elimination  of  the  group  of  theories  based  upon  igneous  origin 
leaves  two  general  types  of  origin  to  be  considered — direct 
sedimentation  and  replacement.  Of  these  two  alternative  hypo- 
theses the  evidence  seems  to  be  strongly  in  favor  of  the  latter. 
Differences  of  opinion  are  of  course  possible  as  to  the  details  of 
the  process,  but  the  general  method  seems  quite  clear,  the  usual 
close  association  of  the  magnetites  with  limestone  or  other  readily 
replaceable  rocks  being  of  interest  in  this  connection.  Even  in 
the  cases  where  no  bodies  of  limestone  are  now  to  be  found  with 
the  magnetite,  it  seems  a  fair  assumption  that  such  limestone 
beds  once  existed,  and  that  the  replacement  process  has  here  been 
carried  to  its  limit,  removing  all  traces  of  the  replaced  rock. 

The  following  papers  and  reports  refer  to  the  magnetites  of  the 
Hudson  Highlands  of  New  York,  and  of  northeastern  New 
Jersey. 

BAYLEY,  W.  S      Iron  Mines  and  Mining  in  New  Jersey.     Vol.  8,  Reports 

New  Jersey  Geol.  Survey,  1910. 
KOEBERLIN,   F.   R.     The   Brewster   Iron-bearing   District  of   New  York. 

Economic  Geology,  vol.  4,  pp.  713-754.     1909. 
SMOCK,  J.  C.     Iron  Mines  and  Iron  Ore  Districts  of  New  York.     Bulletin  7, 

New  York  State  Museum,  1889. 
SPENCER,  A.  C.     Genesis  of  the  Magnetite  Deposits  in  Sussex  County,  New 

Jersey.     Mining  Magazine,  vol.  10,  pp.  377-381.     1904. 


THE  NORTHEASTERN  UNITED  STATES        257 


17 


258 


IRON  ORES 


STEWART,  C.  A.     The  Magnetite  Belts  of  Putnam  County,  N.  Y.     School  of 

Mines  Quarterly,  April,  1908. 
STOLTZ,  G.  C.     The  Forest  of  Dean  Iron  Mine  (Orange  County,  N.  Y.). 

Eng.  and  Mining  Journal,  May  20,  1908. 


MAGNETITES  OF  SOUTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA 

The  belt  of  pre-Cambrian  rocks,  noticed  under  the  last  heading, 
continues  across  southeastern  Pennsylvania,  and  there  also  con- 
tains a  number  of  workable  magnetite  deposits.  The  most 
important  of  the  Pennsylvania  magnetites,  however,  though 
occurring  in  the  same  general  section  of  the  state  are  entirely 


SCALE  OF  MILES 
o  i 


FIG.  45. — Cross-section  of  Cornwall  ore-body.     (Spencer.) 

different  from  these  pre-Cambrian  ores  in  their  origin,  geologic 
associations  and  characters.  They  are  magnetite  deposits  of 
Triassic  age,  formed  by  contact  action  along  the  borders  of  the 
great  masses  of  basic  igneous  rocks  which  appeared  during  this 
period. 

By  far  the  most  important  Pennsylvania  magnetite  bodies  is 
Cornwall,  which  is  typical  of  the  class  just  mentioned. 

The  following  publications  refer  to  the  magnetites  and  hema- 
tites of  southeastern  Pennsylvania. 

HARDER,  E.  C.  Structure  and  Origin  of  the  Magnetite  Deposits  near 
Dillsburg,  York  Co.,  Pa.  Economic  Geology,  vol.  5,  pp.  599-622.  1910. 

SPENCER,  A.  C.  Magentite  Deposits  in  Berks  and  Lebanon  Counties, 
Pa.  Bulletin  315,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  185-189.  1907. 

SPENCER,  A.  C.  Magnetite  Deposits  of  the  Cornwall  Type  in  Pennsylvania. 
Bulletin  359,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  102  .  1908. 


THE  NORTHEASTERN  UNITED  STATES        259 

CLINTON  RED  ORES  OF  NEW  YORK  AND  PENNSYLVANIA 

Bedded  red  hematites  of  Clinton  age  occur  underlying  large 
areas  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  As  in  the  case  of  the 
southern  Clinton  ores,  these  are  in  part  oolitic,  in  part  replace- 
ments of  fossil  fragments,  in  part  merely  fillings  of  iron  oxide 
between  sand  grains  and  pebbles.  They  have  been  worked 
extensively  in  Pennsylvania  in  the  past,  and  to  a  considerable 
extent  in  New  York.  During  recent  years  there  has  been  little 
opportunity  for  much  development  of  ores  of  this  type,  but  it  is 
probable  that  in  the  near  future  more  interest  will  be  shown 
along  this  line.  Though  their  grade  is  only  fair,  the  reserves  are 
of  very  large  tonnage  and  easily  determined  and  located. 

The  following  reports  and  papers  refer  to  the  Clinton  ores  of 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania. 

ECKEL,  E.  C.  The  Clinton  Hematite  in  New  York.  Eng.  and  Mining 
Journal,  vol.  79,  pp.  897-898.  1905. 

HIGGINS,  E.  Stripping  Clinton  Ores  in  New  York  State.  Eng.  and  Mining 
Journal,  Dec.  12,  1908. 

KELLY,  W.  The  Clinton  Iron-ore  Deposits  of  Stone  Valley,  Huntingdon 
Co.,  Pa.  Bull.  25,  Amer.  Inst.  Mining  Engrs.,  1909. 

NEWLAND,  D.  H.,  and  HARTNAGEL,  C  A.  Iron  Ores  of  the  Clinton  For- 
mation in  New  York  State.  Bulletin  123,  N.  Y.  State  Museum,  1908. 

RUTLEDGE,  J.  J.  Clinton  Iron  Ores  of  Stones  Valley,  Huntingdon  Co.,  Pa. 
Trans.  Amer.  Inst.  Min.  Engrs.,  vol.  39,  1908. 

BROWN  ORES  OF  THE  NORTHEASTERN  STATES 

Brown  ores  occur  in  western  New  England,  southeastern  New 
York,  northern  New  Jersey  and  southeastern  Pennsylvania. 
They  were  mined  extensively  in  the  early  days  of  the  iron  indus- 
try, but  fell  into  disuse  as  charcoal  disappeared  and  better  ores 
came  in  from  the  Lake  and  other  regions.  At  present  one  mine 
in  New  Jersey  and  a  few  in  Pennsylvania  are  still  operated  in 
ordinary  years. 

So  far  as  future  industrial  importance  is  concerned,  the  north- 
ern brown  ores  do  not  offer  much  prospect  of  further  develop- 
ment. The  heavy  covering  of  glacial  drift  makes  both  pros- 
pecting and  mining  much  more  expensive  than  in  dealing  with 
ores  of  similar  type  in  the  south. 

The  following  publications  refer  to  the  brown  ores  of  the 
northeastern  states. 


260  IRON  ORES 

BAYLEY,  W.  S.  Iron  Mines  and  Iron  Mining  in  New  Jersey.  Vol.  8, 
Reports  New  Jersey  Geol.  Survey.  1910. 

ECKEL,  E.  C.  Limonite  Deposits  of  Eastern  New  York  and  Western  New 
England.  Bulletin  260,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  335-342.  1905. 

HOBBS,  W.  H.  Iron  Ores  of  the  Salisbury  District  of  Connecticut,  New 
York  and  Massachusetts.  Economic  Geology,  vol.  2,  pp.  153-181. 
1907. 

HOPKINS,  T.  C.  Cambro-Solurian  Limonite  Ores  of  Pennsylvania.  Bulle- 
tin Geol.  Society  America,  vol.  2,  pp.  475-502.  1900. 

RED  HEMATITES  OF  THE  WESTERN  ADIRONDACK^ 

A  series  of  deposits  of  red  hematite  occurs  along  the  western 
flank  of  the  Adirondack  region,  in  St.  Lawrence  and  Jefferson 
counties,  New  York.  Some  of  these  deposits  have  been  worked, 
at  intervals,  for  eighty  years  or  so;  one  or  two  of  them  are  still 
operated  during  prosperous  years.  Comparatively  little  atten- 
tion has  been  paid  to  exploration  in  this  region,  and  it  is  possible 
that  the  reserves  here  are  of  more  importance  than  is  commonly 
assumed.  The  developed  tonnage  is,  of  course,  very  small. 

The  ores  are  red  hematites  of  moderate  grade,  ranging  com- 
monly from  40  to  50  percent  metallic  iron  as  shipped,  and 
averaging  probably  a  little  below  45  percent.  The  following 
analyses,  quoted  from  the  Tenth  Census  report,  are  as  useful  as 
any  later  results  and  show  the  general  range  more  completely. 

ANALYSIS  OF   RED  HEMATITES,  WESTERN   ADIRONDACKS 

Metallic        40.40  46.32  41.92  42.18  48.36  36.78  54.16  46.46  44.35 
iron. 
Phosphorus       0.204  0.285  0.130  1.138  0.115  0.212  0.156  0.214  0.226 

CARBONATE  ORES  OF  OHIO  AND  WESTERN  PENNSYLVANIA 

Associated  with  the  Carboniferous  rocks  of  western  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Ohio  are  bedded  deposits  of  iron  carbonate  ores.  These 
were  formerly  worked  on  a  considerable  scale,  but  with  the 
opening  up  of  the  Lake  ranges  the  use  of  the  local  carbonates  fell 
off.  There  is  still,  however,  a  small  but  regular  production  of 
carbonate  ore  reported  from  eastern  and  southeastern  Ohio. 

The  ores  are  commonly  spoken  of  as  carbonates,  and  in  fact 
they  were  such  in  their  original  form.  But  atmospheric  and 
sub-surface  weathering  has  altered  much  of  the  ore  to  brown  ore 
at  and  near  the  outcrop.  All  of  the  ore  now  mined  is  calcined 
before  use  in  the  blast  furnace. 


THE  NORTHEASTERN  UNITED  STATES        261 


Analyses  of  typical  Ohio    ores,  after   being  calcined,  are  as 
follows : 

ANALYSES  OF  CALCINED   CARBONATE  ORES,  OHIO 


1 

2 

Iron  (Fe) 

44.80 

44.50 

Manganese  (Mn)  

0.70 

0.62 

Sulphur  (S)   
Phosphorus  (P) 

0.67 
0.195 

0.80 
0.57 

Silica  (SiO2)    

18.50 

23.00 

Alumina  (A12O3)  
Lime  (CaO) 

5.75 
6.45 

4.45 
5.90 

Magnesia  (MgO)    

1.95 

2.55 

1.  "Ohio  block  ore."     Scioto  County,  Ohio.     Calcined  ore. 

2.  New  Castle  Mine,  Pine  Grove,  Lawrence  County,  Ohio.     Calcined  ore. 

NORTHEASTERN  ORE  REQUIREMENTS 

Having  discussed  the  known  ore  deposits  of  the  northeastern 
states,  it  will  be  serviceable  to  consider  how  far  these  local  re- 
serves are  utilized  at  present,  and  what  the  prospects  are  for 
greater  development  in  the  future. 

Present  Ore  Production. — For  a  number  of  years  past  the 
northeastern  district  has  normally  produced  bstween  two  and 
three  million  tons  of  ore  per  annum,  the  only  recent  exception 
having  been  the  year  1908  when  of  course  the  output  dropped 
sharply.  On  the  average,  the  output  of  the  northeastern  states 
amounts  to  about  5  percent  of  the  total  United  States  produc- 
tion. The  following  summary  table  gives  the  figures  on  these 
points  for  a  number  of  years  back. 


ORE  OUTPUT,  NORTHEASTERN  STATES,  1905-1912 


Year 

1905 
1906 
1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 
1911 
1912 
1913 
1914 


Iron  ore  putput, 

northeastern  states, 

tons 

2,520,845 
2,582,666 
2,823,422 
1,590,098 
2,280,741 
2,605,318 
2,098,923 
2,139,058 


Ore  putput,  total 

United  States, 

tons 

42,526,133 
47,749,728 
51,720,619 
35,924,771 
51,155,437 
56,889,734 
43,876,552 
55,150,147 


Percentage, 
northeast 


5.93 
5.41 


40 
42 
46 

58 


4.79 
3.88 


262  IRON  ORES 

Chief  Sources  of  Supply. — The  total  ore  produced  in  the  north- 
eastern states  comes  chiefly  from  three  main  sources  of  supply. 
Almost  half  of  the  total  usually  comes  from  magnetite  mines  in 
the  Adirondack  region  of  New  York;  and  almost  a  quarter  of  the 
total  each  from  northern  New  Jersey  and  southeastern  Pennsyl- 
vania. Of  the  small  balance,  Ohio  carbonate  ore,  red  hematite 
from  the  western  Adirondacks,  and  brown  ores  from  eastern 
Pennsylvania  account  for  all  but  a  few  thousand  tons. 

The  distribution  of  the  magnetite  ore  which  makes  up  almost 
all  of  the  northeastern  total,  by  states  is  shown  in  the  following 
table,  for  the  years  1910-1912  inclusive. 

CHIEF  SOURCES  OF  MAGNETITE  OUTPUT,  1910-1912 
Tons  of  Magnetite  Produced 

1910      1911      1912 

New  York  1,222,471   1,029,231   1,110,345 

Pennsylvania    632,409          477,908          476,153 

New  Jersey  521,832          464,052          364,673 

Present  Ore  Markets. — The  present  distribution  and  markets 
for  northeastern  iron  ores  may  be  summarized  as  follows.  Of 
the  Adirondack  ores,  a  portion  is  used  in  local  furnaces,  at 
Standish  and  Port  Henry;  a  small  fraction  commonly  goes  to 
furnaces  in  the  Buffalo  district;  and  the  remainder,  which  is  over 
half  the  total,  is  shipped  by  rail  to  furnaces  in  eastern  Pennsyl- 
vania. The  ores  from  northern  New  Jersey  are  used  locally,  in 
furnaces  situated  in  northern  New  Jersey  and  eastern  Pennsyl- 
vania. The  Cornwall  and  other  eastern  Pennsylvania  ores  are 
used  locally,  in  furnaces  quite  near  the  mines. 

It  will  be  seen  that,  except  for  such  tonnage  as  reaches  the  Buf- 
falo region,  all  of  the  northeastern  ore  is  at  present  used  in  fur- 
naces situated  in  the  same  general  region.  As  to  ownership  of 
the  ore,  it  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  considerably  over  half  of 
the  ore  now  mined  each  year  in  the  northeastern  states  goes  to 
furnaces  interested  directly  in  the  mines.  The  tptal  amount  of 
merchant  ore,  reaching  the  general  ore  market,  may  range  from 
500,000  tons  to  1,000,000  tons  per  year.  As  to  competition,  the 
northeastern  ores  meet  foreign  ores  in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsyl- 
vania markets;  and  meet  Lake  Superior  ores  at  Buffalo  and  in 
eastern  Pennsylvania. 

Prospects  for  Future  Development. — We  may  assume,  without 
chance  of  serious  error,  that  at  present  some  three  or  four  hundred 


THE  NORTHEASTERN  UNITED  STATES        263 

million  tons  of  commercial  concentrates  could  be  turned  out 
from  magnetite  ore-bodies  which  have  been  well  developed  and 
proven  up  in  the  northeastern  United  States.  It  is  probable 
that  at  least  an  equal  tonnage  could  be  made  from  deposits 
known  to  exist,  but  not  yet  sufficiently  developed  to  warrant  close 
estimates.  All  this  is  ore  which  could  be  mined,  milled  and  sold 
at  a  profit  under  the  conditions  which  exist  to-day.  It  does 
not  take  into  consideration  the  enormous  tonnages  of  Clinton 
ores  and  other  possible  future  sources  of  supply. 

As  against  these  reserves  which  are  measured  in  hundreds  of 
millions  of  tons,  we  face  the  fact  that  the  annual  ore  output  in 
the  northeastern  states  is  some  two  or  three  million  tons  a  year; 
and  that  it  is  not  growing,  on  the  average.  The  question  at 
issue  is  whether  there  is  any  reason  to  expect  developments  which 
will  increase  the  market  for  these  ores,  and  permit  larger  annual 
output. 

This  question  may,  in  my  opinion,  be  answered  in  the  affirma- 
tive. There  seem  to  be  several  causes  at  work  which  will,  in  the 
near  future,  create  a  better  demand  for  at  least  some  of  the  north- 
eastern ores.  Primarily,  there  is  the  growth  of  iron  and  steel 
manufacture  in  the  eastern  district;  which  the  recent  tariff 
changes,  after  a  temporary  discouragement,  will  doubtless  be 
found  to  help  rather  than  hinder.  Second,  as  affecting  com- 
petitive values,  we  have  to  consider  that  the  completion  of  the 
New  York  State  canals  will  permit  cheaper  transportation  of 
Adirondack  ores  to  their  markets. 


CHAPTER  XX 


THE  WESTERN  UNITED  STATES 

The  Western  District,  as  that  term  is  here  used,  includes  the 
eleven  states  lying  west  of  the  eastern  lines  of  Montana,  Wyoming, 
Colorado  and  New  Mexico.  It  thus  comprises  somewhat  over 
a  third  of  the  total  area  of  the  United  States.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  produces  somewhat  less  than  2  percent  of  the  total  output 
of  iron  ore  in  the  United  States. 

Productive  Status  of  the  West. — The  present  situation  in  this 
regard  is  well  brought  out  by  the  following  table. 

IRON-ORE  PRODUCTION  OF  WESTERN  DISTRICT,  1906-1912 


Year  

1906        1907 

1908 

1909 

1910 

1911 

1912 

Production, 
tons. 
Percentage  of 
United  States. 

806,268  831,258 
1.69    i    1.61 

528,625 
1.47 

637,582 
1.25 

861,850 
1.51 

746,971 
1.70 

815,425 

1.47 

The  preceding  figures  are  taken  from  reports  of  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey.  For  the  earlier  years  they  include 
all  iron  ore  mined  in  the  west,  not  only  that  used  for  pig  iron  but 
also  the  tonnage  used  as  flux  at  plants  smelting  other  metals. 

Practically  all  of  the  tonnage  given  in  the  above  table  now 
comes  from  the  Hartville  region  of  Wyoming,  and  goes  to  the  only 
important  western  furnace  plant,  that  of  the  Colorado  Fuel  and 
Iron  Co.,  at  Pueblo,  Colorado.  There  is  a  small  electric  furnace 
operating  in  California,  and  at  different  times  more  or  less  serious 
attempts  have  been  made  to  make  iron  and  steel  in  Oregon  and 
Washington.  The  Colorado  plant,  however,  is  the  only  large 
and  steadily  operated  consumer  of  iron  ore  in  the  entire  western 
district,  and  this  condition  is'not  likely  to  be  changed  in  the  near 
future.  A  high  tariff  might  ultimately  induce  the  manufacture 
of  iron  and  steel  at  another  interior  point,  such  as  Ogden,  as  well 
as  at  some  coast  point.  But  the  market  is  not  large  at  the  best, 
and  under  existing  conditions  it  can  be  supplied  more  cheaply 
from  outside  sources. 

264 


THE  WESTERN  UNITED  STATES 


265 


Hartville  Region,  Wyoming. — The  Hartville  iron  region  is 
located  in  eastern  Wyoming,  in  Laramie  County.  As  at  present 
developed,  it  is  a  relatively  small  area,  not  over  20  or  30  square 
miles  being  involved.  Shipments  from  this  region  commenced 
in  1868,  and  since  that  date  it  has  become  the  principal  source 
of  supply  for  the  furnaces  of  the  Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron  Com- 
pany at  Pueblo. 


Iron  ton   f"  \  \ 

?;cago.Xf    (  i 

Mine     \\   .  \ V          S-^" 

'<unri$e    j/Qr    (       ,  .  \^      ^/  


Iron  Mines  and  Prospects 

I 

SCALE  OF  MILES 

i          e        1 3 


FIG.  46. — Map  of  Hartville  district,  Wyoming.     (Ball.) 

In  the  Hartville  region  steeply  dipping  pre-Cambrian  rocks 
are  overlain  and  encircled  by  flat-lying  rocks  of  Carboniferous 
and  later  age.  The  iron  deposits  occur  in  the  pre-Cambrian 
series,  and  the  later  rocks  are  of  interest  chiefly  as  offering  diffi- 
culties to  prospecting  and  development. 

The  pre-Cambrian  rocks  of  the  area  include  schists,  limestones, 
quartzites  and  igneous  rocks.  The  ores  occur  as  lenticular 


266 


IRON  ORES 


deposits  replacing  certain  of  the  schist  lenses,  and  also  as  fillings 
along  faults.  Contact  deposits  also  occur;  but  the  main  ores  are 
the  lenticular  masses  first  mentioned.  These  have  undoubtedly 
originated  by  replacement,  and  the  only  point  at  issue  is  the  orig- 


GREAT  SALT  LAKE 


FIG.  47. — Map  of  Iron  Springs  district,  Utah.     (Leith  and  Harder.) 

inal  source  of  the  iron.  Ball  and  Leith  are  inclined  to  consider 
that  the  schist  was  originally  a  fairly  ferruginous  material,  and 
that  the  process  has  been  one  of  secondary  concentration  within 
the  original  bed,  as  in  the  Lake  Superior  region.  The  descrip- 


THE  WESTERN  UNITED  STATES  267 

tions  given,  however,  do  not  seem  to  be  conclusive  on  this  point. 

The  ores  are  hematites,  in  places  soft  and  partly  hydrated, 
in  other  places  hard.  .  Sulphur  is  low,  but  phosphorus  is  up  to  or 
above  the  Bessemer  limit.  The  ores  grade  from  45  to  65  percent 
or  over  in  metallic  iron,  and  the  average  shipments  are  in  the 
neighborhood  of  55  percent. 

Iron  Springs  Region,  Utah. — The  Iron  Springs  district  is  located 
in  southwestern  Utah,  in  Iron  County.  Its  ores  have  been 
known  for  forty  years  or  more,  but  absence  of  demand  and 
difficulties  of  transportation  have  prevented  active  development. 
It  is  possible  that  in  the  near  future  western  growth  may  justify 
their  utilization,  at  some  assembling  point  such  as  Ogden,  where 
coking  coal  can  be  brought  to  meet  them. 

The  ore  deposits  occur  along  and  near  the  contact  between 
limestone  and  igneous  rocks.  Several  large  andesite  laccoliths 
appear  as  peaks  rising  above  the  Carboniferous  and  Cretaceous 
rocks  through  which  the  igneous  rocks  have  been  forced.  The 
sedimentary  rocks  are  altered  near  the  contact,  and  where  the 
andesite  is  in  immediate  contact  with  Carboniferous  limestones 
deposits  of  iron  ore  have  replaced  the  limestone.  There  are  als<* 
ore  deposits,  of  minor  importance,  in  the  andesite  itself.  The 
accompanying  sections  (Figs.  11,  12  and  13)  from  the  report  by 
Leith  and  Harder,  will  serve  to  exemplify  the  common  type  of 
occurrence  and  relations. 

The  ores  of  the  Iron  Springs  region  are  magnetite  and  hematite. 
At  and  near  the  surface  the  former  predominates,  but  apparently 
the  hematitie  increases  in  relative  proportion  in  depth.  The 
range  in  metallic  iron  is  from  45  to  69  percent;  phosphorus  is 
variable  but  averages  slightly  above  the  Bessemer  limit;  sulphur 
is  still  more  variable  and  may  increase  in  depth.  Leith  gives  the 
following  as  the  average  of  all  obtainable  analyses  of  ores  from 
this  region : 

Metallic  iron 56.0 

Manganese 0 . 196 

Copper 0.027 

Phosphorus 0.200 

Sulphur 0.057 

Silica 7.0 

Alumina 1.0 

Lime  and  magnesia 4.0 

Soda  and  potash 2.0 

Water..  3.0 


268 


IRON  ORES 


Colorado  and  New  Mexico  Ores. — At  various  points  in  Colo- 
rado and  New  Mexico  iron  ores  have  been  mined,  both  for  the 
Pueblo  furnaces  and  for  smelter  flux.  These  ores  have  mostly 
been  gossan  or  contact  deposits,  and  none  are  of  sufficient  present 


FIG.  48. — Map  of  southern  California   iron  districts.     (Harder.) 

or  future  importance  to  justify  separate  description.  The  Fierro 
deposits  in  New  Mexico  may  be  mentioned  as  an  important 
source  of  supply,  some  years  ago,  for  the  Pueblo  furnaces. 

Pacific  Coast  Iron  Ores. — In  the  Sierra  Nevada,  as  well  as  in 
other  portions  of  the  three  Pacific  Coast  states,  iron-ore  deposits 


THE  WESTERN  UNITED  STATES  269 

of  more  or  less  importance  have  been  located  and  described. 
Those  at  Minaret,  Madera  County,  California  and  in  the  Eagle 
Mountains,  Riverside  County,  are  said  to  be  of  large  tonnage, 
perhaps  fifty  to  one  hundred  million  tons  each.  Deposits  in 
Shasta  County  are  worked  for  the  electric  furnace  on  the  Pitt 
River;  and  ores  in  Oregon  and  Washington  have  been  slightly 
developed  in  connection  with  various  attempts  at  iron  manufac- 
ture in  those  states.  But  the  fuel  and  labor  conditions  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  are  not  as  attractive  as  the  ores,  and  there  is  little 
reason  to  expect  any  active  development  in  the  near  future. 


FIG.  49. — Sketch    showing     iron    ore     deposits    near     Dale,     California. 

(Harder.) 

The  Western  Ore  Situation. — The  western  district,  as  here 
defined,  comprises  about  one-third  of  the  total  area  of  the  United 
States.  On  the  other  hand,  whatever  basis  we  may  adopt  in 
estimating  our  ore-reserves,  it  would  be  difficult  to  credit  the 
western  district  with  containing  more  than  one-tenth  of  one- 
fifteenth  of  the  total  known  iron  ores  of  the  United  States.  It 
will  be  seen  that  there  is  a  vast  disparity  between  area  and  known 
tonnage,  and  that  we  must  be  dealing  with  a  region  which  either 
has  not  been  carefully  prospected  for  iron,  or  which  was  originally 
less  rich  in  iron  ores  than  other  portions  of  the  country.  It  is 
probable  that  both  of  these  conditions  exist,  and  that  there  are 
large  gaps  in  our  knowledge  as  well  as  some  original  deficiency  in 
ores. 

As  regards  the  first  point,  there  has  been  so  little  demand  for 
iron  ore  in  the  western  states  that  there  has  been  no  special 
inducement  either  to  search  for  it  carefully,  or  to  report  any 
occurrence  which  is  found  accidentally.  It  is  probable  enough 
that,  should  the  demand  ever  become  serious,  careful  prospecting 
would  develop  much  larger  tonnages  of  iron  ore  in  the  western 
states  than  are  now  known  to  exist  in  that  region.  On  the  other 
hand,  deficiencies  in  present  knowledge  do  not  seem  to  account 
entirely  for  the  conditions  met.  Iron  ores,  to  be  of  commercial 


270  IRON  ORES 

value  at  all,  must  occur  in  relatively  large  deposits,  and  we  must 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  certain  types  of  iron  deposit,  well- 
known  elsewhere,  are  not  abundant  in  the  west  or  they  would 
have  been  recognized  before  now. 

Anyone  taking  up  the  literature  relating  to  iron-ore  deposits 
in  the  Rocky  Mountain  and  Pacific  States  will  be  struck  at  once 
by  the  stress  laid  upon  deposits  due.  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
to  igneous  action,  as  compared  with  the  relative  unimportance  of 
such  types  of  iron  deposits  elsewhere  in  the  United  States.  To 
some  extent  this  condition  might  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that 
most  of  the  geologists  who  have  described  western  iron  ores  have 
been  predisposed,  by  their  experience  with  other  metallic  ores,  to 
give  much  attention  to  those  modes  of  origin.  But  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  ore  deposits  of  the  'igneous  or  contact 
types  are,  actually  and  necessarily,  relatively  more  common  in 
the  western  than  in  the  eastern  portion  of  the  country. 

Certain  types,  which  furnish  the  bulk  of  the  eastern  reserves, 
do  not  appear  to  occur  in  the  west,  or  else  they  are  of  less  relative 
importance.  So  far  as  known,  for  example,  the  western  geologic 
series  does  not  contain  any  workable  beds  of  purely  sedimentary 
ores,  like  the  well-known  Clinton  hematites  of  our  eastern  and 
southern  states  and  the  minette  ores  of  the  Lorraine-Luxembourg 
region.  Our  common  type  of  Appalachian  brown-ore  deposit 
seems  also  to  be  relatively  rare  in  the  west,  and  there  are  so  few 
western  areas  where  the  necessary  geologic,  topographic  and 
climatic  conditions  have  existed  during  recent  periods  as  to  offer 
little  hope  of  finding  such  deposits  heavily  represented.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  do  find  in  the  western  region  heavy  magnetite 
and  hematite  replacements  along  igneous  contacts,  brown-ore 
deposits  originating  from  decomposing  sulphides,  and  in  'one 
area  replacement  deposits  closely  similar  to  the  Lake  Superior 
type. 

Publications  on  Western  Iron  Ores. — The  following  list  con- 
tains titles  of  most  of  the  reports  and  papers  dealing  with  iron 
ores  in  the  Rocky  Mountain  and  Pacific  States.  For  convenience 
of  reference  they  are  arranged  by  states,  in  alphabetical  order. 

Arizona 

UPHAM,  W.  E.     Specular  Hematite    Deposits,  Planet,  Arizona.     Mining 
and  Scientific  Press,  April  15,  1911,  pp.  521-523. 


THE  WESTERN  UNITED  STATES  271 

California 

A  USURY,  L.  E.  Iron  Ores  of  California.  Bulletin  38,  Calif.  State  Mining 
Bureau,  pp.  297-305.  1906. 

DILLER,  J.  S.  Iron  Ores  of  the  Redding  Quadrangle,  Cal.  Bulletin  213, 
U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  219-220.  1903. 

HARDER,  E.  C.  and  RICH,  J.  L.  Iron-ore  Deposit  near  Dale,  San  Bernard- 
ino Co.  Bulletin  430,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  228-239.  1910. 

JONES,  C.  C.  An  Iron-ore  Deposit  in  the  California  Desert  Region.  Eng. 
and  Min.  Journal.  April  17,  1909. 

JONES,  C.  C.     Iron  Ores  of  the  Southwest.     Mines  and  Minerals,  April,  1911 . 

PRESCOTT,  B.  Iron  Ores  of  Shasta  County.  Economic  Geology,  vol.  3, 
pp.  465-480.  1908. 

Colorado 

CHAUVENET,  R.     Preliminary  Notes  on  the  Iron  Resources  of  Colorado. 

Col.  School  of  Mines,   Report  of  Fieldwork  and  Analyses  for  1886, 

pp.  5-16.     1888. 
CHAUVENET,  R.     The  Iron  Resources  of  Colorado.     Trans.  Amer.  Inst. 

Min.  Eng.,  vol.  18,  pp.  266-273.     1890. 
DEVEREUX,  W.  B.     Notes  on  Iron-ore  Deposits  in  Pitkin  County,  Colorado. 

Trans.  Amer.  Inst.  Min.  Eng.,  vol.  12,  pp.  638-640.     1885. 
ENDLICH,  F.  M.     Iron  Carbonate  of  the  Trinidad  Region.     Hayden  Survey, 

Report  for  1875,  pp.  204-205.     1877. 
HARDER,   E.   C.     The  Taylor  Peak  and  White  Pine  Iron-ore   Deposits. 

Bulletin  380,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  188-198.     1909. 
LEITH,  C.  K.     Iron  Ores  of  Colorado.     Bulletin  285,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey, 

pp.  196-198.     1906. 
ROLKER,  C.  M.     Notes  on  Certain  Iron-ore  Deposits  in    Colorado.     Trans. 

Amer.  Inst.  Min.  Eng.,  vol.  14,  pp.  266-273.     1886. 
SNEDAKER,  J.  A.     Colorado  Iron-ore  Deposits.     Eng.  and  Min.  Journal., 

Feb.  16,  1905,  p.  313. 

New  Mexico 

PAIGE,   S.     The    Hanover  Iron-ore  Deposits.     Bulletin  380,   U.   S.    Geol. 

Survey,  pp.  199-214.     1909. 
KEYES,  C.  R.     Iron  Deposits  of  the  Chupadera  Mesa.     Eng.  and  Mining 

Journal,  vol.  78,  p.  632.     1904. 

Utah 

BOUTWELL,   J.   M.     Iron  Ores  in  the  Uintah  Mountains.     Bulletin    225, 

U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  221-228.     1904. 
JENNINGS,  E.  P.     Origin  of  the  Magnetic  Iron  Ores  of  Iron  County,  Utah. 

Trans.  Amer.  Inst.  Min.  Engrs.,  vol.  35,  pp.  338-342.     1904. 
LEITH,  C.  K.     Iron  Ores  in  Southern  Utah.     Bulletin  225,  U.     S.  Geol. 

Survey,  pp.  229-237.     1904. 
LEITH,  C.  K.  and  HARDER,  E.  C.     Iron  Ores  of  the  Iron  Springs  District, 

Southern  Utah.     Bulletin  338,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  102  pages.     1908. 


272  IRON  ORES 

LERCH,  F.     The  Iron-ore  Deposits  in  Southern  Utah.     Iron  Trade  Review, 

pp.  49-50.     May  19,  1904. 
PUTNAM,  B.  T.     (Utah  Iron  Ores.)     Vol.  15,  Reports  Tenth  Census,  pp.  169- 

505.     1886. 

Washington 

SHEDD,  S.     The  Iron  Ores  of  Washington.     Vol.  1,  Reports  Washington 

Geol.  Survey,  pp.  215-256.     1902. 
SMITH,  G.  O.  and  WILLIS,  B.     The  Clealum  Iron  Ores,  Washington.     Trans. 

Amer.  Inst.  Min.  Eng.,  vol.  30,  pp.  356-366.     1910. 


Wyoming 

BALL,  S.   H.     The  Hartville  Iron-ore    Range,   Wyoming.     Bulletin    315, 

U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  190-205.     1907. 
BALL,  S.  H.     Titaniferous  Iron-Ore  of  Iron  Mountain,  Wyoming.     Bulletin 

315,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  206-212.     1907. 
CHANCE,  H.  M.     The  Iron  Mines  of  Hartville,  Wyoming.       Trans.  Amer. 

Inst.  Min.  Eng.,  vol.  30,  pp.  987-1003.     1901. 
VALLET,  B.  W.     The  Iron  Ores  and  System  of  Mining  at  Sunrise  Mine. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
NEWFOUNDLAND  AND  CANADA 

In  describing  the  iron  ores  of  British  America,  it  will  be  most 
convenient  to  discuss  first  those  of  Newfoundland,  as  being  not 
only  the  most  important  from  a  reserve  tonnage  standpoint,  but 
the  best  located  so  far  as  utilization  in  world  commerce  is  con- 
cerned. The  chief  ore  regions  of  the  Dominon  of  Canada  may 
then  be  taken  up  in  turn,  from  east  to  west. 

NEWFOUNDLAND 

The  iron  ores  now  worked  in  Newfoundland  possess  many 
points  of  both  scientific  and  industrial  interest.  They  are  sedi- 
mentary ores,  of  a  higher  grade  in  iron  than  most  other  ores  of 
that  origin;  the  total  tonnage  present  makes  up  one  of  the  very 
largest  and  by  far  the  most  compact  ore  reserves  in  the  world; 
and  the  bulk  of  this  tonnage  is  submarine.  At  present  most  of 
the  ore  is  mined  several  miles  from  land,  under  an  arm  of  the 
ocean;  in  spite  of  which  fact  the  ore  can  be  placed  in  any  Atlantic 
port  of  America  or  Europe  at  a  cost  far  lower,  per  unit  of  iron, 
than  any  competitive  ore.  Under  these  circumstances,  which  in 
the  long  run  must  give  Newfoundland  a  high  rank  as  a  source  of 
iron  ore,  it  will  be  worth  while  describing  the  deposits  and  the 
general  situation  in  considerable  detail. 

Geologic  Features. — Iron  ores  occur  at  many  points  in  New- 
foundland, but  the  only  deposits  now  worked  are  those  in  Con- 
ception Bay,  in  southeastern  Newfoundland,  some  15  miles 
west  of  St.  Johns.  The  deposits  in  question  are  sedimentary 
beds,  occurring  interstratified  with  sandstones  and  shales.  The 
associated  rocks  are  of  Cambrian  and  Ordovician  age,  and  iron- 
ore  beds  occur  in  both  series,  but  the  main  workable  beds  are 
confined  to  the  upper  or  Ordovician  portion  of  the  series. 

The  shores  of  Conception  Bay  are,  for  the  most  part,  made  up 
of  slates  and  other  rocks  of  pre-Cambrian  age.  At  intervals, 
however,  little  outliers  of  Cambrian  shales  and  limestones  are 
18  273 


274 


IRON  ORES 


seen  along  the  immediate  coast.  These  outlying  bodies  dip  in  all 
cases  toward  the  bay,  and  indicate  that  the  bay  is  underlain  by 
a  basin  or  trough  of  Cambrian  and  later  rocks.  Actual  working 
has  demonstrated  the  truth  of  this  theory. 


St.  Francis 


|xxx*|  Qufcrop  oF  Ore,  on  Bell  Island. 

Probable  L/mifs  of  Submarine  Ore  Basin. 
\Areas  oF  Cambrian  and  Ordovicfan  Rocks. 
\Areas  of  Pre-Cctmbrian  Rocks. 

SCALE  OF  MILES 
0  S  10 15 20 


FIG.  50. — Map  of  Wabana  ore  basin,  Newfoundland. 

It  has  been  noted  that  the  ore  beds  are  confined,  so  far  as  now 
known,  to  the  upper  portion  of  the  series.  The  ore-i)earing 
portion  outcrops  on  Bell  Island,  an  islet  some  2  miles  wide  and 
6  miles  long,  lying  several  miles  off-shore  in  the  bay.  Iron 
mining  was  first  commenced  on  the  outcrop  on  Bell  Island,  and 


NEWFOUNDLAND  AND  CANADA  275 

its  prosecution  in  the  submarine  areas  took  place  at  a  consider- 
ably later  date. 

The  Main  Ore  Beds. — Disregarding  the  seven  or  eight  ore  beds 
which  are  present,  but  too  thin  to  be  workable,  the  ore  reserves  of 
this  field  are  contained  in  three  beds.  These,  named  from  top 
downward,  are  respectively  called  the  Little  Upper,  the  Scotia 
and  the  Dominion  Seams.  The  names  assigned  do  not  imply 
anything  as  to  the  actual  present  ownership  by  the  two  steel 
companies  now  mining  the  ores.  All  three  of  these  beds  are 
worked  in  the  land  areas  on  Bell  Island;  while  the  submarine 
slopes  of  the  Scotia  company  operate  at  present  in  the  Dominion 
Seam  only. 

Of  the  three  beds  worked,  the  topmost  or  Little  Upper  bed 
ranges  in  workable  thickness  from  5  to  8  feet,  and  averages  about 
6  feet.  Sixty  feet  below  it,  the  interval  being  filled  with  shales 
and  thin  sandstones,  comes  the  Scotia  bed.  This  is  about  8  feet 
thick  at  all  portions  of  its  exposure.  Below  the  Scotia  bed  come 
about  350  feet  of  shales  again,  between  it  and  the  Dominion  bed. 
This  last  ranges  from  12  to  20  feet  in  thickness  ordinarily,  though 
in  one  portion  of  the  submarine  workings  a  thickness  of  33  feet 
was  measured.  Taken  throughout  the  entire  explored  area,  the 
Dominion  bed  will  probably  give  an  average  workable  thickness 
of  close  to  16  feet. 

Grade  and  Composition  of  Ore. — The  ores  of  the  Wabana  basin 
are  dense,  fine-grained  red  hematities,  ranging  from  48  to  57  per- 
cent in  metallic  iron,  with  6  to  12  percent  silica.  The  three  beds 
differ  somewhat  in  grade  of  ore,  though  the  differences  are  not 
great,  the  Scotia  bed  showing  the  highest  iron  content. 

The  Dominion  bed,  from  which  practically  all  of  the  shipments 
are  now  made,  will  yield  an  average  of  48  to  50  percent  metallic 
iron,  if  shipped  as  mined.  At  the  mines  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Steel 
Co.,  however,  the  installation  of  a  picking  belt  has  brought  the 
average  grade  up  to  51  or  52  percent  iron,  at  slight  additional 
cost.  For  the  years  1910  to  1912,  inclusive,  the  total  shipments 
of  this  company  averaged  51.88  percent  iron  and  9.56  percent 
silica.  Considering  the  small  cost  of  mining  and  transportation, 
it  is  obvious  that  this  ore  can  be  placed  in  any  Atlantic  coast 
market,  whether  in  Europe  or  America,  at  a  lower  cost  per  unit 
of  iron  than  any  known  competitive  ore. 

The  phosphorus  ranges  from  0.70  to  0.85  percent,  which  with 


276  IRON  ORES 

the  ore  grade  as  it  is,  produced  a  pig  metal  carrying  1.4  to  1.7 
percent  phosphorus.  If  used  alone,  the  ore  would  therefore 
make  a  pig  too  high  in  phosphorus  for  normal  economic  basic 
open-hearth  practice;  but  suitable  for  foundry  use  or  for  one  of 
the  modified  processes  which  have  been  developed  in  Europe. 
With  the  addition  of  either  low  or  high  phosphorus  ores,  however, 
mixtures  can  be  cheaply  produced  for  making  basic  open-hearth 
or  basic  Bessemer  pig. 

As  to  other  ingredients,  a  typical  complete  analysis  published 
by  Cantley  shows  sulphur  0.018  percent,  lime  1.80  percent, 
manganese  0.65  percent  and  alumina  3.55  percent. 

The  Wabana  ore,  as  has  been  noted,  is  a  very  dense  material. 
For  the  following  determinations  of  the  specific  gravity  of  average 
samples  from  the  three  main  beds  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  E.  E. 
Ellis. 

Sp.  grav. 

Little  Upper  bed 3.99 

Scotia  bed 3.95 

Dominion  bed 4.12 

It  will  be  noticed  that  here  as  elsewhere  the  richest  ore  is  not 
necessarily  the  highest  in  specific  gravity,  for  the  pore  space  in 
the  ores  from  the  Upper  and  Scotia  beds  more  than  counter- 
balances their  higher  iron  content. 

Market  Points. — Located  as  they  are,  on  deep  water,  the 
Wabana  ores  have  a  very  extensive  possible  market  area.  The 
following  table,  taken  from  a  recent  paper  by  Mr.  Cantley,  gives 
details  regarding  steaming  distances  from  Wabana  to  various 
ports  in  Europe  and  America : 

DISTANCES  FROM  WABANA  TO  MARKET  PORTS 


Stettin 

2633 

Baltimore 

1398 

Emden  

2475 

Philadelphia  

1242 

Amsterdam  

2310 

New  York  

1110 

Rotterdam  

2294 

Montreal  

1065 

Newcastle  

2406 

Quebec  

930 

Middlesboro  

2350 

Halifax  

580 

Liverpool  

1966 

Pictou  

540 

Glasgow  

1899 

Sydney  

412 

At  present  the  greater  portion  of  the  tonnage  from  the  Wabana 
ore  field  goes  to  the  steel  plants  of  the  Nova  Scotia  and  Dominion 
companies,  at  Sydney,  Nova  Scotia. 


NEWFOUNDLAND  AND  CANADA  277 

Production  and  Shipment. — For  the  following  data  on  total 
exports  and  destinations  of  ore  from  the  Wabana  field  during 
several  recent  fiscal  years  I  am  indebted  to  the  Collector  of  the 
Port  at  St.  Johns,  Newfoundland. 

EXPORTS  AND  DESTINATIONS  OF  WABANA  ORE,  1910—1912 

Year  ending,  July  1, 
Destination  1910  1911  1912 

Sydney,  Canada 641,885  789,735  642,395 

Philadelphia,  U.  S.  A 254,750  194,020  178,055 

Rotterdam,  Holland 105,825  122,950  104,050 

Emden,  Germany 7,400  38,330 

Middlesboro,  England 57,420  61,080  54,100 


Total  shipments...  1,059,880         1,175,185         1,016,930 

Both  the  Rotterdam  and  Emden  shipments,  of  course,  ulti- 
mately reach  German  furnaces.  The  following  summary  of  the 
European  and  United  States  shipments,  from  the  opening  of  the 
mines  in  1895  to  the  end  of  1912,  is  made  up  from  data  furnished 
by  Messrs.  Cantley  and  Chambers,  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Steel  & 
Coal  Co.  It  will  give  the  best  idea  of  the  relative  importance  of 
the  three  ultimate  foreign  markets  so  far  as  Newfoundland  ore 
shipments  are  concerned. 

FOREIGN  SHIPMENTS  1895—1912 

Tons 

Germany 2,013,269 

United  States 1,611,860 

England 651,237 


Total 4,276,366 

Probable  Reserve  Tonnages. — The  three  workable  beds,  taken 
together  give  an  average  aggregate  thickness  of  30  feet  over  the 
entire  area  so  far  explored.  As  the  ore  is  very  dense,  averaging 
about  9  cubic  feet  to  the  ton,  we  may  assume  that  each  square 
mile  of  ore  field  contains  at  least  ninety  million  tons  of  ore. 
This  will  be  used  as  the  basis  in  later  calculations. 

As  to  area  available,  we  have  to  deal  with  the  facts  that  the 
three  beds  can  be  examined  and  measured  for  several  miles  along 
their  outcrops  on  Bell  Island,  and  that  the  slopes  of  the  Scotia 
company  are  now  out  close  to  2  miles,  in  a  direction  at  right 
angles  to  the  outcrop.  Since  the  ore  shows  no  signs  of  approach- 


278  IRON  ORES 

ing  its  termination  in  any  of  the  directions  seen,  it  is  probable 
that  even  without  considering  any  geologic  argument  an  engineer 
would  assume  that  the  tonnage  available  is  at  least  three  thou- 
sand millions. 

But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  geologic  argument  for  greater 
extension  of  this  field  is  far  stronger  than  may  be  commonly 
understood.  On  a  small  map  (Fig.  50)  the  probable  limits  of 
the  basin  are  indicated.  From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  reserve 
tonnage  will  in  all  likelihood  be  fixed  by  working  conditions  and 
costs,  rather  than  being  limited  by  running  into  barren  ground. 
If  we  assume  that  there  is  no  technical  impossibility  in  the  way 
of  working  the  ore,  by  slopes  from  the  islands  or  the  mainland, 
as  far  out  as  Cape  St.  Francis,  we  have  to  deal  with  a  reserve 
aggregating  some  ten  thousand  million  tons. 

In  view  of  the  very  serious  results  in  case  of  roof  defects,  a 
heavy  allowance  must  be  made  for  ore  left  as  supports.  It 
would  probably  be  safest  to  assume  that  the  recovery  will  be 
approximately  50  percent  of  the  total  ore  available.  When 
the  preceding  estimates  as  to  total  ore  reserves  are  discounted 
for  this  factor,  it  will  be  seen  that  even  then  they  constitute  one 
of  the  largest  reserve  tonnages  in  the  world. 

The  following  papers  and  reports  relate  to  the  Wabana  ore 
basin  of  Newfoundland,  and  will  serve  to  give  further  details 
concerning  it.  The  paper  by  Cantley  is  of  greatest  general 
usefulness  in  this  regard. 

CANTLEY,  T.     The  Wabana  Iron  Mines  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Steel  &  Coal  Co. 

Journal  Canadian  Mining  Institute,  vol.  14,  June,  1911.  pp.  31-56. 
CHAMBERS,    R.    E.     A    Newfoundland    Iron    Deposit.     Journal   Canadian 

Mining  Institute,  vol.  1,  p.  41.     1896. 
CHAMBERS,  R.  E.     The  Sinking  of  the  Wabana  Submarine  Slopes.     Journal 

Canadian  Mining  Institute,  vol.  12,  pp.  141-143.     1909. 
HOWLEY,    J.    P.     The    Mineral    Resources    of    Newfoundland.     Journal 

Canadian  Mining  Institute,  vol.  12,  pp.  149-162.     1909. 
HOWLEY,  J.  P.     The  Iron  Ores  of  Newfoundland.     Iron  Ore  Resources  of 

the  World,   llth  International  Geologic  Congress,  vol.  2,  pp.  749-752, 

1910. 
STEPHENSON,  B.  S.     Mining  Iron  Ore  at  Wabana,  Newfoundland.     Iron 

Trade  Review,  Oct.  14,  1909,  pp.  651-656. 

DOMINION  OF  CANADA 

The  total  area  comprised  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada  is  very 
extensive,  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  it  is  practically  unexplored 


NEWFOUNDLAND  AND  CANADA  279 

so  far  as  iron  possibilities  are  concerned,  and  much  of  it  gives  little 
promise  of  being  able  to  support  an  iron  industry  even  in  case 
the  ores  are  found.  Under  these  circumstances  an  attempt  to 
discuss  the  iron-ore  resources  of  Canada  in  any  great  detail  would 
be  obviously  bound  to  result  in  failure,  for  the  scattered  data 
which  are  available  do  not  necessarily  refer  to  the  deposits  of  the 
greatest  ultimate  commercial  importance.  It  seems  best,  there- 
fore, to  treat  the  subject  in  another  fashion,  and  to  discuss  the 
possibilities  which  seem  to  exist  in  each  of  the  industrial  districts 
into  which  the  area  may  be  divided.  For  this  purpose  the  follow- 
ing grouping  seems  to  fit  in  with  our  present  requirements : 

a.  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia. 

b.  Quebec  and  eastern  Ontario. 

c.  Western  Ontario. 

d.  Alberta  and  eastern  British  Columbia. 

e.  Western  British  Columbia. 

The  five  areas  into  which  Canada  is  divided  in  the  above  group- 
ing do  not  coincide  exactly  with  existing  political  divisions, 
but  they  do  represent  a  grouping  based  on  commercial  possi- 
bilities as  determined  by  coal  supplies,  population,  and  industrial 
development. 

New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia. — Iron-ore  deposits  of  more 
or  less  importance  occur  at  many  points  in  the  two  provinces  now 
under  consideration.  The  extensive  development  of  the  Wabana 
ore  field  in  Newfoundland  has  operated  to  decrease  interest  in 
the  development  of  purely  local  supplies,  for  only  a  few  of  the 
known  deposits  seem  to  promise  more  than  very  local  importance. 

Two  groups  of  ore  deposits  are  now  in  operation,  one  near 
Bathurst,  New  Brunswick,  and  the  other  at  Torbrook,  Nova 
Scotia.  As  the  ore  from  these  mines  enters  to  some  extent  into 
international  commerce,  they  will  be  described  in  sufficient  detail 
to  give  some  idea  of  their  present  and  probable  future  importance. 
Magnetites  of  Bathurst  Region,  New  Brunswick — A  group  of 
magnetite  deposits  occur  near  Bathurst,  in  Gloucester  County, 
New  Brunswick,  and  shipments  have  been  made  from  them  dur- 
ing recent  years  by  the  Canada  Iron  Corporation.  The  workings 
were  located  at  Austin  Brook,  some  20  miles  southwest  of 
Bathurst,  and  the  ore  was  shipped  down  a  company  line  to  Nipisi- 
quit  Junction  and  thence  over  the  Intercolonial  Railroad  to 


280 


IRON  ORES 


Newcastle.     These  features  of  the  situation  are  brought  out  in 
Fig.  51. 

The  ores  are  moderately  rich  magnetites  in  their  natural  con- 
dition, grading  from  40  to  46  percent  metallic  iron.  A  series  of 
samples  taken  by  Lindemann  across  various  deposits  gave  the 
following  results. 


FIG.  51. — Sketch  map  of  Bat  hurst  district,  New  Brunswick. 
ANALYSES  OF  CRUDE  ORE,  AUSTIN  BROOK,  NEW  BRUNSWICK 


Metallic  iron  .... 
Manganese  
Insouble  matter  .  . 
Phosphorus  
Sulphur  

43.7     42.5     46.0     46.6     43.4     43.6       44.5     47.5 
1.0     n.  d.    n.  d.      1.8     n.   d.       0.5       n.  d.      1.2 
26.3     34.6     21.6     24.7     25.2     33.1       28.5     22.7 
0.64     1.20     1.21     1.04     0.82     0.40       0.83     0.65 
0.05     0.03     0.05     0.02     0.02     0.007     0.03     0.05 

NEWFOUNDLAND  AND  CANADA 


281 


The  ores  occur  as  long  lenses  enclosed  in  schist.  This  schist 
is  supposed  by  the  Canadian  geologists  to  be  a  mashed  porphyry 
of  Silurian  or  later  age.  A  diabase  body  of  still  later  age  occurs 
near  the  main  ore  lens,  but  is  not  known  to  be  in  contact  with  it 
at  any  point.  Fig.  52  is  a  sketch,  made  up  from  my  own 
observations  and  the  records,  and  shows  the  main  ore  mass  as  it 
originally  outcropped,  and  brings  out  this  feature  of  the  matter. 

The  ore  mass  now  worked  is  about  2000  feet  in  length,  trending 
about  N.  10°  E-,  and  dipping  westward.  Near  the  outcrop 
the  dip  was  65  degrees,  but  this  flattened  toward  the  south  end 
of  the  lens.  From  wall  to  wall  the  lens  gave  a  total  width  of 
110  feet  at  the  outcrop,  narrowing  southward.  The  walls  on 
both  sides  are  schist,  and  there  are  inclusions  and  stringers  of  a 
greenish  chloritic  schist,  which  at  one  point  forms  a  horse  of 
considerable  size. 


•Stringers  of  Pyrifa 

FIG.  52. — Cross-section  of  ore-body  at  Austin  Brook,  New  Brunswick. 

The  crude  ore  as  mined  gave  42  to  43  percent  iron;  this  was 
concentrated  wet  to  a  product  carrying  48  to  49  percent  iron. 
All  the  mining  done  so  far  has  been  open  cut;  but  in  a  short  time 
underground  work  will  have  to  be  taken  up  in  order  to  avoid  too 
heavy  stripping. 

Hematities  of  the  Torbrook  Region,  Nova  Scotia. — At  various 
points  in  Nova  Scotia  the  Clinton  and  other  Paleozoic  rocks  carry 
ores  similar  in  origin  and  general  character  to  those  mined  so 
extensively  in  the  Birmingham  region  of  the  United  States.  In 
past  years  these  ores  have  been  worked,  on  a  relatively  small  scale, 
in  different  portions  of  the  province;  but  at  present  the  ores  of  the 
Torbrook  district  are  the  only  sedimentary  ores  being  mined  in 
Nova  Scotia. 

The  Torbrook  mines  are  located  in  Annapolis  County,  about 
5  miles  southeast  of  the  station  of  Middleton,  which  is  a  junc- 
tion point  for  the  Dominion  Atlantic  and  the  Halifax  South- 
western railroads.  The  mines  are  connected  with  both  roads 


282  IRON  ORES 

by  spur  tracks.  During  recent  operations  most  or  all  of  the 
shipments  have  been  down  the  Halifax  Southwestern  to  Port 
Wade,  where  loading  docks  permit  access  of  ocean-going  steamers. 
The  total  rail  haul  by  this  route  is  some  45  miles  from  mine  to 
dock. 

In  the  vicinity  of  Torbrook  the  Devonian  series  contains  several 
ore  beds,  and  folding  brings  these  to  the  surface  in  two  belts  of 
outcrops.  These  conditions  result  in  a  number  of  exposures  of 
the  ore,  and  in  a  general  impression  that  the  field  is  more  impor- 
tant than  is  really  the  case.  When  carefully  examined,  it  is  found 
that  only  two  beds  are  workable;  and  that  though  the  total 
tonnage  existing  is  unquestionably  large,  there  are  some  diffi- 
culties connected  with  the  matter. 

In  the  developed  portion  of  the  field  the  two  workable  beds — 
the  Shell  and  Leckie  beds — are  steeply  inclined,  dipping  about  80 
degrees  to  the  southeast,  the  trend  of  the  outcrop  being  North  40 
East.  The  beds  vary  considerably  in  thickness  from  point  to 
point,  but  average  about  5  feet  thick  each.  They  are  100 
feet  apart,  measured  horizontally  across  the  strike.  Two  shafts 
are  in  operation,  both  beds  being  worked  from  each  shaft. 

The  ores  differ  considerably  in  character  and  composition. 
The  ore  of  the  Leckie  bed  is  almost  a  normal  Clinton  ore;  it  is  a 
red-  hematite  for  the  most  part,  though  magnetic  in  places; 
usually  massive,  but  oolitic  at  some  points.  The  ore  from  the 
Shell  bed,  on  the  other  hand,  displays  two  features  not  often 
found  in  the  same  ore;  it  is  very  fossiliferous,  and  it  is  highly 
magnetic.  The  metamorphic  effects  of  local  igneous  action  have 
partly  altered  each  ore  bed  but  for  some  reason  have  had  the 
greatest  effect  on  the  Shell  ores. 

The  following  complete  analyses  of  the  crude  ore  from  the  two 
beds  are  quoted  from  Woodman,  so  as  to  give  some  idea  of  the 
relative  character  of  the  two  types  of  ore.  They  are  not  average 
analyses  and  are  of  no  commercial  importance. 


Metallic  iron .... 

Silica 

Alumina 

Lime 

Magnesia 

Phosphorus 

Sulphur 


Shell 

Shell 

Leckie 

Leckie 

45.62 

47.36 

54.22 

50.89 

10.98 

9.00 

11.86 

14.30 

7.02 

6.60 

3.12 

3.62 

8.62 

8.73 

1.90 

1.60 

0.96 

1.00 

0.26 

tr. 

1.105 

1.115 

0.90 

1.17 

0.305 

0.505 

0.019 

n.  d. 

NEWFOUNDLAND  AND  CANADA 


283 


The  Shell  ore  is  always  lower  in  iron  and  higher  in  lime  than  the 
Leckie  ore.  As  mined,  the  crude  ore  from  the  two  beds  averages 
42  to  43  percent  metallic  iron;  this  is  concentrated  up  to  50  to  52 
percent  grade.  One  typical  shipment  gave  51.07  percent  iron, 
13.08  silica,  1.32  percent  phosphorus,  and  0.5  percent  manga- 
nese. In  this  the  lime  would  run  about  3  percent,  and  sulphur 
about  0.015  percent. 

Quebec  and  Eastern  Ontario. — Scattered  over  the  Province  of 
Quebec,  and  the  eastern  portion  of  Ontario,  are  deposits  of  hema- 
tite and  magnetite.  Some  of  these  are  of  high-grade  ore,  and  in 
some  cases  there  seems  to  be  reason  to  expect  the  occurrence  of 
considerable  reserve  tonnage.  At  present  most  of  these  deposits 
are  ruled  out  of  the  market  because  of  transportation  difficulties, 
and  their  chief  interest  arises  from  the  fact  that  in  the  future 
they  may  perhaps  furnish  an  auxiliary  ore  supply  for  the  furnaces 
in  this  district  built  to  use  Lake  Superior  ores. 

The  following  analyses,  quoted  from  various  reports,  will  serve 
to  give  some  idea  of  the  better  class  of  ores  from  this  area. 

ANALYSES  OF  IRON  ORES,  QUEBEC  AND  EASTERN  ONTARIO— 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

Metallic  iron  
Manganese 

53.20 

58.78 
tr. 

56.69 

62.98 

58.25 

63.88 
0.15 

62.03 
0.15 

Phosphorus  
Sulphur  
Silica  
Alumina  

0.027 
0.085 
20.67 
0.61 

0.015 
0.280 
10.44 

0.006 
0.263 
11.00 

0.012 
0.173 

6.78 

0.018 
0.054 
15.38 

0.06 
0.07 
5.77 

0.004 
0.54 
5.35 

0  76 

0  41 

0  92 

0  45 

0  17 

2  41 

Water 

3  27 

Western  Ontario. — The  district  now  to  be  briefly  described  is 
essentially  an  extension  of  the  Lake  Superior  iron-ore  field  of  the 
United  States,  and  because  of  this  fact  has  been  explored  more 
closely  than  any  other  Canadian  area.  These  explorations  have 
been  disappointing  so  far  as  present  results  go,  and  Leith  has 
pointed  out  that  there  is  some  geologic  reason  for  expecting 
relatively  small  tonnages  to  be  discovered  on  the  Canadian  side 
of  the  line.  The  rocks  of  the  Canadian  area  are  pre-Cambrian, 
like  the  Michigan  and  Minnesota  iron-bearing  series;  but  in  Can- 
ada the  Huronian  rocks  (which  contain  most  of  the  ores  of  Michi- 
gan and  Minnesota)  cover  relatively  small  areas;  while  most  of 
the  Canadian  region  is  covered  by  rocks  of  Keewatin  age,  which 


284  IRON  ORES 

in  the  United  States  are  of  considerably  less  importance  as  con- 
tainers of  large  ore  deposits. 

With  this  brief  note  on  the  theory  of  the  case,  we  may  sum- 
marize the  existing  status  of  development  by  saying  that  two 
producing  areas  or  ranges  have  been  so  far  discovered — the 
Atikokan  and  Michipicoten  ranges — while  several  other  more  or 
less  promising  districts  have  been  noted.  The  Michipicoten 
range  has  only  one  producing  mine — the  Helen — while  the 
Atikokan  range  does  not  appear  to  be  very  extensive.  The 
Atikokan  ores  are  shipped  to  the  furnaces  at  Port  Arthur;  while 
the  ore  from  the  Helen  mine  reaches  Lake  Superior  by  rail.  The 
bulk  is  used  at  the  Saulte,  though  some  is  shipped  to  eastern 
markets. 

ANALYSES  OF  MICHIPICOTEN  ORES,  ONTARIO 

Moisture — loss  on  drying  at  212° 5.70 

Metallic  iron 58 . 20 

Manganese 0 . 165 

Phosphorus 0 . 127 

Sulphur 0.127 

Silica 4 . 40 

Alumina 0.88 

Lime 0 . 23 

Magnesia 0.14 

Loss  on  ignition 10 . 40 

Average  shipments  from  Helen  Mine,  1907.  Monog.  LII,  U.  S.  G.  S., 
p.  156. 

Alberta  and  Eastern  British  Columbia. — Manitoba  and  Sas- 
katchewan do  not  give  promise  of  becoming  the  seats  of  any  im- 
portant iron  industry,  but  it  is  otherwise  with  the  area  immedi- 
ately to  the  westward,  for  here  coal  supplies,  iron  deposits,  and 
industrial  development  do  offer  some  opportunity  for  the  iron 
industry  to  become  established  on  at  least  a  moderate  scale.  In 
this  connection  it  is  well  to  recall  that,  owing  to  the  manner  in 
which  the  Rocky  Mountain  front  range  bends  westward  in  pass- 
ing up  into  Canada,  a  steel  plant  located  at  Calgary  would  have 
essentially  the  same  location,  relative  to  the  coal  fields  and 
transportation  routes,  as  the  existing  plant  at  Pueblo,  Colorado. 

Deposits  of  iron  ore  have  been  reported  as  occurring  at  various 
points  both  in  Alberta  and  in  eastern  British  Columbia,  and  some 
of  the  reports  indicate  the  possibility  that  ore-bodies  of  commer- 
cial importance  may  exist.  Nothing  definite  is  known,  however, 


NEWFOUNDLAND  AND  CANADA  285 

as  to  the  possible  tonnage  or  working  grade  of  any  of  these  depos- 
its. But  the  soundness  of  the  fuel  situation  in  this  district  will 
make  even  a  moderately  good  ore  deposit  available;  and  it  may 
fairly  be  expected  that  further  exploration  will  be  taken  up  in  the 
near  future. 

Western  British  Columbia. — An  important  series  of  magnetite 
deposits  occur  in  western  British  Columbia.  Those  best  known 
are  located  on  Texada  Island,  in  the  Straits  of  Georgia,  though 
other  very  promising  ore-bodies  are  known  to  occur  on  adjoining 
small  islands  as  well  as  on  Vancouver  Island. 

In  type  all  of  these  deposits  agree  quite  closely.  The  principal 
ore  in  each  case  is  magnetite,  commonly  ranging  from  45  to  65 
percent  in  metallic  iron.  It  is  often  below  the  Bessemer  limit 
in  phosphorus;  but  on  the  other  hand  is  almost  invariably  high 
in  sulphur,  to  the  point  of  requiring  roasting  before  smelting.  In 
many  places  from  J  to  2  percent  of  copper  is  contained  in  the  ore. 

As  to  geologic  associations  and  origin,  a  general  similarity  is 
apparent  among  the  deposits.  All  of  the  important  ore-bodies, 
and  most  of  the  smaller  ones,  are  located  in  limestone  along  its 
contact  with  igneous  rocks.  The  ores  replace  the  limestone  in 
bodies  of  rather  irregular  form,  but  as  no  really  deep-level  working 
or  exploration  has  been  attempted,  little  can  be  said  definitely  as 
to  the  possible  size  of  the  individual  bodies  or  the  probable  total 
ore  reserves  in  the  district.  Different  estimates  have  ranged 
from  a  few  millions  of  tons  up  to  one  hundred  million  tons  or 
thereabout,  as  the  total  reserve. 

Comparatively  small  shipments  of  these  ores  have  been  made 
in  the  past  to  furnaces  in  the  states  of  Washington  and  Oregon; 
but  the  failure  to  establish  a  sound  iron  industry  on  the  Pacific 
Coast  has  prevented  any  great  development  of  the  ores.  The 
proximity  of  the  Vancouver  Island  and  other  British  Columbia 
coal  fields  indicates  that  their  final  use  will  probably  be  in  the 
province  itself,  though  up  to  the  present  day  it  has  been  assumed 
that  a  sufficient  market  is  not  available  to  justify  the  erection 
of  even  a  small  furnace.  The  real  limitation,  however,  is  the  low 
cost  at  which  Chinese  and  Indian  pig  iron  can  be  placed  on 
this  coast.  Local  labor  costs  are  also  high,  which  may  prevent 
development  in  the  near  future. 

Status  of  Iron  Production  in  Canada. — The  first  recorded  dis- 
covery of  iron  ore  in  Canada  was  in  1667,  and  as  early  as  1730 


286  IRON  ORES 

at  least  one  forge  was  in  operation.  This  earliest  plant  was  suc- 
ceeded, in  1737,  by  a  group  of  forges  at  Three  Rivers,  Quebec, 
which  remained  in  active  operation  until  1883,  being  at  that  date 
the  oldest  active  iron  producers  on  the  American  continent. 
Other  plants  were  put  in  operation  during  the  eighteenth  and 
early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  most  of  the  ore  used  being 
either  bog  ore  or  the  magnetic  iron  sand  occurring  along  the  St. 
Lawrence  River.  In  1873  an  attempt  was  made  to  produce  steel 
directly  from  these  sands  in  an  open-hearth  furnace,  but  the 
product  was  irregular  in  grade  and  the  total  quantity  small. 

The  existing  iron  and  steel  industry  of  Canada  shows  little 
relation,  either  in  location  or  in  raw  materials,  to  these  earlier 
plants.  With  the  exception  of  a  relatively  small  production  in 
Quebec  from  local  ores,  the  iron  industry  of  the  Dominion  may 
be  said  to  have  developed  in  three  directions;  first,  an  important 
group  of  producers  located  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  using  ores  from 
that  province,  from  New  Brunswick  and  from  Newfoundland; 
second,  another  group  located  in  Ontario,  at  Hamilton,  Deseronto 
and  Midland,  using  ores  mostly  from  the  American  and  Canadian 
Lake  Superior  fields;  and  third,  two  companies  located  respectively 
at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  and  Port  Arthur,  Ontario,  and  also  using 
Lake  ores. 

The  following  data  on  pig-iron  production  are  quoted  from  one 
of  the  series  of  reports  by  McLeish,  cited  in  the  reference  list  on 
page  287. 

PRODUCTION  OF  PIG  IRON  IN  CANADA,  1887-1910 

Year  Ontario  Nova  Scotia  Quebec  Total 

1887  19,320  5,507  24,827 

1890  18,382  3,390  21,772 

1895  35,192        7,262  42,454 

1896  28,302  32,351  6,615  67,268 
1900  62,387  28,133  6,055  96,575 
1905  256,704  261,014  7,588  525,306 
1910  447,273  350,287  3,237  800,797 

It  may  be  added  that  in  1910  the  steel  production  of  Canada 
amounted  to  822,284  tons  of  ingots  and  castings,  which  produced 
739,811  tons  of  rolled  products.  Of  this  last  total  rails  accounted 
for  366,465  tons,  or  almost  half  of  the  entire  quantity  of  rolled 
products. 

Recurring  now  to  the  question  of  ore  development,  which 
might  be  assumed  to  have  accompanied  this  growth  in  finished 


NEWFOUNDLAND  AND  CANADA  287 

products,  it  may  be  said  that  of  some  one  and  one-half  million 
tons  of  ore  used  in  1910  in  Canadian  furnaces,  less  than  200,000 
tons  were  mined  in  Canada  itself.  Of  the  remainder,  some 
800,000  tons  were  mined  in  Newfoundland,  while  500,000  tons 
or  more  came  from  the  American  Lake  ranges.  The  chief 
Canadian  ore  producers  at  present  are  the  Helen,  Atikokan, 
Moose  Mountain  and  Mayo  mines  in  Ontario;  the  Bathurst 
deposits  in  New  Brunswick;  and  the  Torbrook  mines  in  Nova 
Scotia.  All  of  these  together  are  of  course  overshadowed  by  the 
Wabana  mines  in  Newfoundland. 

Reference  List  on  Canadian  Iron  Ores. — The  following  list 
contains  titles  of  a  number  of  the  more  important  recent  reports 
and  papers  dealing  with  the  geology  or  development  of  iron  ores 
in  Canada.  It  is  of  course  far  from  complete,  but  the  papers 
cited  will  serve  to  indicate  where  further  data  may  be  found. 

COLEMA.N,  A.  P.     The  Helen  Mine,  Michipicoten.     Economic  Geology,  vol. 

1,  pp.  521-529.     1906. 
CIRKEL,  F.     Iron-ore    Deposits   along  the  Quebec  and  Gatineau  Rivers. 

Report  Canadian  Dept.  Mines,  147  pp.     1909. 
DAWSON,  G.  M.     Report  on  a  Geological  Examination  of  the  Northern 

Part   of   Vancouver   Island   and   Adjacent    Coasts.     Canadian    Geol. 

Survey,  Report  for  1886,  part  B,  pp.  1-129.     1887. 
FRECHETTE,  H.     Torbrook   Iron-ore   Deposits,    Nova  Scotia.     Bulletin  7, 

Canadian  Dept.  Mines,  13  pp.     1912. 
HAANEL,  E.     The  Iron  Ores  of  Canada.     Iron  Ore  Resources  of  the  World, 

vol.  2,  pp.  721-743.     1910. 
HILLE,  F.     Iron-ore  Deposits  in  Thunder  Bay  and  Rainy  River  Districts, 

Ontario.     Report  Canadian  Dept.  Mines,  65  pp.     1908. 
LEITH,  C.  K.     Iron  Ores  of  the  Western  United  States  and  British  Columbia. 

Bulletin  285,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  194-200.     1906. 
LEITH,  C.  K.     Iron  Ores  of  Canada.     Economic  Geology,  vol.  3,  pp.  276-291. 

1908. 
LINDEMAN,    E.     Iron-ore    Deposits   of   Vancouver   and    Texada    Islands. 

Report  Canadian  Dept.  Mines.     1909. 
LINDEMAN,  E.     Iron-ore    Deposits  of   the  Bristol  Mine,  Pontiac  County, 

Quebec.     Bulletin  2,  Canadian  Dept.  Mines.     1910. 
McLEisH,  J.     The  Production  of  Iron  and  Steel  in  Canada  during  1907 .    .    . 

(and  subsequent  years).    Annual  publication  of  Canadian  Dept.  Mines. 

1908-date. 
RICHARDSON,  J.     Report  on  Geological  Explorations  in  British  Columbia. 

Canadian  Geol.  Survey,  Report  for  1873-1874,  pp.  94-102,  260.     1874. 
VAN  HISE,  C.  R.  and  LEITH,  C.  K.     The  Geology  of  the  Lake  Superior  Re- 
gion.    Monograph  LII,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey.     1911. 
WOODMAN,  J.  E.     Report  on  the  Iron-ore  Deposits  of  Nova  Scotia.     Report 

Canadian  Dept.  Mines,  226  p.     1909. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
THE  WEST  INDIES,  MEXICO  AND  CENTRAL  AMERICA 

In  the  present  chapter  are  combined,  purely  as  a  matter  of 
convenience,  the  discussions  of  the  iron-ore  resources  of  the  West 
Indies,  of  Mexico,  and  of  Central  America.  The  group  thus 
made  is  heterogeneous  politically,  for  it  contains  countries  and 
colonies  differing  greatly  in  status.  It  is  heterogeneous,  to  a 
scarcely  less  degree,  from  the  geological  standpoint,  for  it  includes 
areas  differing  greatly  in  geological  history  and  formations. 
Finally,  from  the  standpoint  of  iron  ore  production  or  possibili- 
ties, it  includes  certain  areas  of  great  international  importance, 
other  areas  which  give  some  promise  of  future  importance,  and 
still  others  which  will  probably  never  become  serious  producers 
of  either  iron  or  iron  ore. 

Cuba,  for  example,  is  known  to  contain  one  of  the  largest  ore 
reserves  in  the  world;  Hayti  and  Porto  Rico  are  promising,  but 
relatively  unknown;  while  Jamaica  and  many  of  the  smaller 
West  Indian  Islands  can  be  ruled  out,  on  purely  geologic  grounds, 
as  offering  little  hope  of  ever  turning  up  even  moderate  tonnages 
of  ore.  Mexico  and  Central  America  are  known  to  contain 
workable  deposits,  but  their  total  ore  tonnage  will  probably  be 
much  smaller  than  their  mere  area  might  suggest. 

CUBA 

The  known  iron  ores  of  Cuba  fall  into  two  groups,  differing 
widely  in  character,  geologic  associations,  tonnage  and  commercial 
importance.  Those  best  known,  as  having  been  worked  the 
longest,  are  magnetites  and  hematites  from  the  south  coast  of 
the  island;  those  of  greatest  ultimate  importance  are  brown  ores 
from  the  north  coast.  They  have  so  little  relation  to  each  other 
that  it  will  be  best  to  describe  the  two  types  separately.  In  each 
case  the  principal  workings  are  in  the  province  formerly  known 
as  Santiago,  and  now  as  Oriente. 

South-shore  Hematites  and  Magnetites. — Since  1884  iron 
ores  of  high  grade  have  been  worked  steadily  in  a  district  near 

288 


WEST  INDIES,  MEXICO  AND  CENTRAL  AMERICA  289 


the  city  of  Santiago,  on  the  south  coast  of  Cuba.  The  mines 
are  located  in  the  foothills  of  the  Sierra  Maestra,  and  the  iron- 
bearing  region  occupies  a  belt  reaching  along  the  coast,  within  a 
few  miles  of  the  water.  Within  this  general  area  mines  have  been 
opened  as  far  west  as  Guama,  35. miles  west  of  Santiago,  and  as 
far  east  as  Sigua,  25  miles  east  of  the  city.  The  chief  workings, 
however,  have  been  at  Sevilla,  Firmeza,  Daiquiri  and  Berraco,  all 
located  east  of  Santiago. 

The  ores  are  mixed  magnetites  and  hematites,  grading  from 


atlte  Mines,  Santiago  District 
Principal  Brown  Ore  Fields,  North  Shore. 


FIG.  53. — Map  of   eastern  Cuba  showing  chief   hematite  and   brown-ore 
deposits.     (Spencer.) 

55  to  65  in  metallic  iron,  and  low  in  both  phosphorus  and  sulphur. 
Analyses  of  average  yearly  shipments  from  Daiquiri  are  quoted  as 
follows : 

1896 

Metallic  iron 63 . 05 

Manganese 0 . 062 

Phosphorus 0 . 025 

Sulphur 0 . 048 

Silica 7.58 

Alumina 0.82 

Lime 0 . 89 

Magnesia 0 . 26 

19 


1897 
63.10 
0.097 
0.029 
0.072 
7.22 
0.71 
1.06 
0.38 

1906 
57.40 
n.d. 
0.038 
0.20 
11.80 

1907 
57.80 
n.d. 
0.034 
0.18 
10.80 

290  IRON  ORES 

These  ores  occur  in  irregularly  shaped  deposits,  associated  with 
a  series  of  metamorphic  rocks — schists  and  crystalline  limestones. 
In  places  these  rocks  are  cut  by  igneous  rocks  of  later  date — 
porphyries  and  diorites — but  Spencer  does  not  consider  that 
the  origin  of  the  ores  is  related  in  any  way  to  these  igneous  in- 
trusions, but  that  they  existed  as  deposits  in  the  metamorphic 
rocks  prior  to  the  igneous  action. 

The  irregularity  of  these  deposits,  both  as  regards  the  shape 
and  size  of  the  individual  ore-bodies  and  as  regards  their  distribu- 
tion through  the  mass  of  barren  rock,  is  such  that  estimates  as 
to  reserve  tonnage  are  to  be  accepted  with  caution.  Hayes,  in 
discussing  the  ore  supplies  tributary  to  the  United  States,  credits 
this  particular  Cuban  field  with  containing  some  nine  million 
tons  of  ore  in  reserve,  of  which  about  half  has  been  definitely 
placed  in  sight  or  developed  by  drilling. 

North-shore  Brown  Ores. — In  1901,  while  examining  the  ore 
deposits  of  Cuba  for  the  War  Department  of  the  United  States, 
A.  C.  Spencer  noted  the  occurrence  of  large  deposits  of  brown 
ores  near  the  north  coast  of  the  island,  in  the  province  of  Santiago. 
These  deposits  were  sampled  and  analyzed,  but  the  publication 
of  the  facts  in  an  official  report  aroused  little  interest  at  the  time 
among  American  iron  producers.  Later  the  Pennsylvania  Steel 
Company  commenced  the  development  of  these  ores,  and  at 
present  the  importance  of  the  field  is  fully  recognized. 

The  deposits  which  have  so  far  been  developed  or  carefully 
examined  are  in  the  eastern  end  of  the  island,  in  the  provinces  of 
Oriente  (formerly  Santiago)  and  Camaguey  (formerly  Puerto 
Principe).  Brown  ores  which  appear  to  be  of  entirely  similar 
type  have,  however,  been  reported  from  other  points  of  the  island, 
reaching  as  far  west  as  Pinar  del  Rio  province,  so  that  in  time 
the  working  ore  district  may  be  very  greatly  extended  beyond  its 
present  limits.  Estimates  of  the  reserve  tonnage  in  the  known 
deposits  have  been  made  by  various  geologists  and  engineers,  and 
these  estimates  range  up  to  some  three  billion  tons.  It  is  almost 
certain  that  the  actual  tonnage  of  ores  of  this  type  in  Cuba  will 
be  ultimately  found  to  be  far  in  excess  of  the  current  estimates. 

The  brown  ores  of  the  north  coast  of  Cuba  are  thoroughly 
hydrated  brown  hematites,  carrying  from  40  to  50  percent 
metallic  iron.  In  their  natural  state  the  ores  carry  about  30 
percent  of  moisture,  in  addition  to  the  12  to  14  percent  of 


WEST  INDIES,  MEXICO  AND  CENTRAL  AMERICA  291 

combined  water.  As  to  other  constituents,  they  are  notably 
high  in  alumina,  but  low  in  phosphorus  and  sulphur.  Their 
most  remarkable  peculiarity  is  the  presence  of  considerable 
chromium  and  some  nickel.  All  of  these  points  in  which  they 
differ  from  more  normal  ores  are  explained  by  their  origin  and 
geologic  associations.  A  few  representative  analyses  may  be 
introduced,  in  order  to  give  some  idea  of  the  average  grade  of 
the  ore,  as  shown  by  samples  dried  at  212°  F. 


45.18 
1.7 
0.53 
0.56 
0.1 
0.063 
6.75 

12.3 

12.0 


Metallic  iron 

ANALYSES  OF  BROWN  ORES,  CUBA 
46  03 

Chromium  
Nickel 

1.73 
n.d. 

Manganese  
Phosphorus  
Sulphur 

n.d. 
0.015 
n.d. 

Silica  

5.50 
10.33 
13.62 

Alumina  
Combined  water  .  . 

Moisture 31 . 63 

The  ores  are  associated  closely  with  serpentine  rocks,  and  are 
thought  to  have  been  derived  from  these  serpentines  by  weather- 
ing. Brown  ores  of  similar  origin  were  formerly  worked  onStaten 
Island,  New  York;  and  along  with  certain  ores  from  Greece 
present  the  'same  peculiarities  as  to  the  alumina,  chromium  and 
nickel  content.  In  the  Cuban  area  the  ores  occur  as  a  residual 
blanket  overlying  the  weathered  serpentine. 

This  blanket,  in  some  of  the  more  important  areas,  averages 
15  feet  in  thickness,  and  is  made  up  of  a  hard  bed  immediately 
over  the  serpentine,  and  of  soft  clay-like  ore,  with  pellets  and 
masses  of  harder  ore,  reaching  to  the  ground  surface. 

It  is  obvious  that  interesting  problems  in  both  concentrating 
and  metallurgical  practice  were  presented  by  ores  differing  so 
widely  from  the  bulk  of  the  ores  previously  used  in  eastern  fur- 
naces. It  is  necessary  first  of  all  to  remove  the  water,  before 
shipment,  so  as  to  save  freight  charges  which  is  done  in  rotary 
kilns  like  those  used  in  cement  manufacture.  This  is  a  rather 
expensive  operation,  particularly  since  the  fuel  required  must  be 
imported,  but  better  technical  practice  will  probably  reduce  its 
costs  considerably. 


292  IRON  ORES 

Iron-ore  Industry  of  Cuba. — Though  the  first  location  on  the 
south  shore  hematites  appears  to  have  been  filed  over  fifty  years 
ago,  it  was  not  until  1884  that  any  serious  mining  operations  were 
undertaken.  In  that  year  the  Juragua  Iron  Company,  then 
under  the  joint  control  of  the  Bethelem  and  Pennsylvania  Steel 
companies,  commenced  mining  and  shipping  from  the  mines  near 
Seville  and  Firmeza.  Several  other  companies  started  operations 
at  various  dates,  but  the  only  one  whose  work  achieved  perma- 
nency was  the  Spanish-American  Iron  Company,  which  in  1895 
commenced  shipments  from  the  Daiquiri  region.  At  that  time 
the  Spanish-American  Company  was  an  independent  pro4ucer, 
but  some  ten  years  ago  the  joint  control  of  the  Juragua  company 
was  given  up,  it  became  the  sole  subsidiary  of  the  Bethelem  Steel 
Company,  while  the  Pennsylvania  Steel  Company  acquired  con- 
trol of  the  Spanish-American  Iron  Company. 

When  the  brown  ore  deposits  on  the  north  coast  of  Cuba  were 
discovered,  both  the  Spanish-American  and  the  Juragua  compa- 
nies took  part  in  their  development,  while  several  other  interests 
also  secured  tonnages  of  more  or  less  importance.  Shipments  are 
now  being  made  steadily  from  the  brown  ore  holdings  of  both 
companies. 

The  following  table  shows  the  shipments  of  iron  ore  from  Cuba 
since  the  opening  of  the  mines  in  1884.  The  statistics  of  the 
Cuban  iron-ore  production  were  collected  by  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey. 

Reference  List  on  Cuban  Ores. — The  reports  and  papers  cited 
in  the  following  list  will  suffice  to  place  the  more  important  data 
on  the  subject  in  form  for  further  study.  As  a  matter  of  con- 
venience, reports  dealing  chiefly  with  the  south  shore  hematites 
have  been  marked  A,  while  those  referring  principally  to  the 
brown  ore  deposits  of  the  north  coast  are  marked  B. 

A.  CHISHOLM,  F.  F.     Iron-ore  Beds  in  the  Province  of  Santiago,  Cuba. 
Proc.  Colorado  Scientific  Society,  vol.  3,  pp.  259-263.     1891. 

B.  CUMINGS,  W.  L.  and  MILLER,  B.  L.     Brown  Iron  Ores  of  Camaguey 
and  Moa,  Cuba.     Iron  Trade  Review,  May  18,  1911,  pp.  964-968. 

A.       KIMBALL,  J.  P.     Geological  Relations  and  Genesis  of  the  Specular 

Iron  Ores  of  Santiago  de  Cuba.     Amer.  Journal  of  Science,  3rd.  series, 

vol.  28,  pp.  416-429.     1884. 
A.       KIMBALL,  J.  P.     The  Iron-ore  Range  of  the  Santiago  District  of  Cuba. 

Trans.  Amer.  Inst.  Mining  Engrs.,  vol.  13,  pp.  613-634.     1885. 
A, B.  SPENCER,  A.  C.     Iron  Ores  of  Cuba.     In  Report  to  War  Dept.  on 

Geology  of  Cuba.     1901. 


WEST  INDIES,  MEXICO  AND  CENTRAL  AMERICA  293 

A.  SPENCER,  A.  C.     The  Iron  Ores  of  Santiago,  Cuba.     Eng.  and  Min- 
ing Journ.,  Nov.  16,  1901. 

B.  SPENCER,  A.  C.     Three  Deposits  of  Iron  Ore  in  Cuba.     Bulletin  340, 
U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  pp.  318-329.     1908. 

B.       ANON.     The  Mayari  Iron-ore  District  of  Cuba.     Iron  Age,  Aug.  15, 

1907,  pp.  421-426 
A,B.  ANON.     Iron  Mining  in  Cuba.     Iron  Age,  April  9,  1908,  pp.  1149- 

1157. 

SHIPMENTS  OF  IRON  ORE  FROM  MINES  IN  THE  PROVINCE  OF  ORIENTS 
(SANTIAGO),    1884-1910,    IN    LONG  TONS 


Year 

Juragua 
Iron  Co.  i 
(Limited) 

Sigua  Iron 
Co. 

Spanish- 
American 
Iron  Co. 

Cuban 
Steel  Ore 
Co. 

Ponupo 
Manganese 

Total 

1884  

25,295 

25,295 

1885  

80,716 

80  716 

1886  

112,074 

112  074 

1887  

94,240 

94,240 

1888  

206,061 

206  061 

1889  

260,291 

260  291 

1890  

363,842 

363,842 

1891  

264,262 

264  262 

1892  

335,236 

6,418 

341,654 

1893  

337,155 

14,020 

351,175 

1894  

156,826 

156  826 

1895.. 

307,503 

74991 

382  494 

1896  
1897  

298,885 
a  248,256 

114,110 
b  206  029 

412,995 

454  285 

1898  

83,696 

84,643 

168,339 

1899  

161,783 

215,406 



377,189 

1900  

154,871 

292,001 

446,872 

1901 

199,764 

c  334  833 

17  651 

552  248 

1902  

221,039 

455,105 

23  590 

699  734 

1903  

155,828 

467,723 

623,621 

1904  

31,162 

356,111 

387,273 

1905  

139,828 

421,331 

561  159 

1906  

133,379 

507,195 

640,574 

1907  

181,063. 

500,330 

681  393 

1908  
1909.. 

366,580 
356,659 

452,854 
514  066 

59  721 

819,434 
930  446 

1910  

318,814 

934,092 

.  165,008 

1,417,914 

a  Of  this  quantity,  5,932  tons  were  sent  to  Pictou,  Nova  Scotia. 
6  Of  this  quantity,  51,537  tons  were  sent  to  foreign  ports. 
c  Of  this  quantity,  12,691  tons  were  sent  to  foreign  ports. 


HAYTI  AND  PORTO  RICO 


The  iron-ore  resources  of  Cuba  having  been  discussed,  those  of 
the  remaining  islands  of  the  West  Indies  can  be  dismissed  quite 


294  IRON  ORES 

briefly.  Jamaica  and  most  of  the  smaller  islands  give  no  geologic 
hope  for  important  ore  deposits.  Hayti  and  Porto  Rico,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  known  to  contain  workable  ores,  and  will  ulti- 
mately in  all  probability  be  found  to  carry  considerable  reserves. 

Iron-ore  deposits,  of  substantially  the  same  type  as  those  which 
have  .for  many  years  furnished  high-grade  hematites  on  the  south 
shore  of  Cuba,  are  known  to  occur  at  a  number  of  points  in 
Porto  Rico.  The  lack  of  good  landings  and  harbors  has  retarded 
the  development  of  these  deposits,  and  little  is  known  as  to  the 
reserve  tonnages  which  they  may  ultimately  prove  to  contain. 

With  regard  to  the  island  of  Hayti,  facts  are  really  more  numer- 
ous than  concerning  Porto  Rico.  It  is  known,  for  example,  that 
large  deposits  of  magnetite  occur  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  island; 
while  heavy  deposits  of  brown  ores  are  reported  from  the  west 
coast.  These  latter  are,  however,  more  likely  to  prove  to  be 
gossan  ores  than  to  resemble  the  brown  ores  of  the  north  coast  of 
Cuba.  In  any  case  mining  development  will  have  to  be  delayed 
until  some  approach  to  stable  political  conditions  appears  on  the 
island.  Divided  now  between  two  quasi-republics,  which  differ 
in  the  language  and  the  exact  tint  of  their  citizens,  there  is  sub- 
stantial agreement  in  other  respects.  It  is  always  possible  to 
secure  concessions  from  the  current  administration,  and  these 
concessions  have  a  certain  legal  or  illegal  standing  until  the  presi- 
dent is  shot  or  moves  the  Treasury  to  Paris.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances no  foreigner  is  likely  to  attempt  mining  except  within 
shell-range  of  the  coast,  and  so  far  no  important  iron  deposits 
have  been  found  so  conveniently  located. 

MEXICO 

Mexico,  like  our  own  state  of  Virginia,  is  one  of  the  areas  which 
seem  to  be  currently  over  valued  as  regards  its  iron-ore  possibili- 
ties. This  is  not  due  to  the  entire  absence  of  iron  deposits, 
however,  for  many  moderate  sized  deposits  are  known  to  exist, 
but  to  the  location  of  such  ore-bodies  relative  to  fuel  supplies  and 
other  industrial  requisites.  Furthermore,  though  it  is  of  course 
very  hazardous  to  say  that  no  really  heavy  tonnages  will  ever  be 
developed  in  Mexico,  we  can  at  least  say  that  it  is  not  as  promising 
a  territory  for  such  discoveries  as  Brazil,  Canada  or  Africa. 

In  discussing  the  iron  resources  and  possibilities  of  the  western 


WEST  INDIES,  MEXICO  AND  CENTRAL  AMERICA  295 

United  States  it  was  pointed  out  that  the  ore  deposits  so  far 
discovered  there  were  different  in  character  and  geologic  associa- 
tions from  those  found  in  the  older  portion  of  the  country;  and 
that  these  differences  were  not  entirely  due  to  the  accidents  of 
discovery,  but  in  part  to  differences  in  the  prevailing  geologic 
conditions  of  the  two  sections.  In  discussing  Mexico  we  can 
carry  this  idea  somewhat  further,  and  say  that  such  iron  ores  as 
have  been  found,  or  are  likely  to  be  found  in  most  portions  of 
Mexico,  will  agree  in  character  and  associations  with  the  ores  of 
the  western  United  States  and  British  Columbia.  That  is  to  say, 
the  prevalent  types  of  ore  deposits  are  likely  to  be  those  char- 
acteristic of  modern  igneous  rocks  in  an  arid  area.  Heavy  de- 
posits of  residual  or  replacement  brown  ores  are  not  likely  to  have 
originated  in  western  Mexico  during  recent  geologic  periods; 
oolitic  ores  of  the  Clinton  type  are  so  far  not  known  to  exist;  and 
the  prevalent  types  are  gossan  ores  and  contact  replacements. 
In  each  case  we  have  to  deal  with  bodies  of  irregular  form,  and 
difficult  of  estimation;  and  with  sulphur  and  titanic  oxide  as  the 
serious  impurities,  rather  than  phosphorus.  In  Yucatan  and 
some  other  portions  of  the  east  coast,  there  are  possibilities  of 
other  types  of  ore  occurring,  but  so  far  no  exploration  has  been 
turned  in  this  direction. 

The  situation  might  be  summarized  by  saying  that  the  fuel  and 
industrial  conditions  in  the  Mexican  interior  are  likely  to  restrict 
the  local  iron  industry  to  relatively  small  size,  and  that  the  ore 
deposits  so  far  known  do  not  promise  any  enormous  total  tonnage; 
that  ore  deposits  on  or  near  the  west  coast  would  be  serviceable, 
even  if  relatively  small,  for  supplying  furnaces  in  British  Columbia 
or  our  coast  states;  and  that  any  deposits  found  in  Yucatan  would 
find  market  in  the  eastern  United  States.  Under  these  conditions 
it  is  obvious  that  the  only  parts  of  Mexico  which  can  possibly 
become  of  any  importance  in  the  international  iron  situation 
are  the  two  coasts;  and  that  at  present  the  west  coast  shows  some 
moderate  sized  ore-bodies,  while  the  east  coast  is  merely  promising 
on  geologic  grounds. 

CENTRAL  AMERICA 

What  has  been  said  above  regarding  the  probable  iron-ore  re- 
sources of  Mexico  may  be  fairly  held  to  apply  to  the  reserves  of 


296  IRON  ORES 

Central  America,  with  the  further  limitation  that  in  the  latter 
case  we  are  dealing  with  a  far  smaller  area  and  therefore  with 
far  smaller  probability  of  discovering  serious  reserve  tonnages. 

Iron  ores  have  been  reported  from  almost  all  of  the  republics  of 
Central  America,  but  in  no  cause  has  the  importance  of  the 
discovery  been  sufficient  to  attract  development  of  the  deposits 
along  modern  lines. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
SOUTH  AMERICA 

From  the  standpoint  of  iron-ore  production,  South  America 
may  be  looked  upon  as  a  continent  of  very  slight  present  develop- 
ment, but  of  great  future  possibilities.  Its  present  status  as  a 
producer  will  be  noted  later,  in  describing  the  various  areas.  As 
regards  its  future  possibilities,  it  is  here  sufficient  to  say  that  a 
number  of  large  iron-ore  deposits  are  known  to  exist  in  various 
portions  of  South  America;  that  one  group  of  these,  in  Brazil,  will 
probably  compare  favorably  in  total  tonnage  with  any  other  ore 
fields  in  the  world;  and  that  in  several  widely  scattered  localities 
preparations  are  now  being  made  to  actively  develop  South 
American  ore  fields.  On  the  other  hand  it  will  be  well  to  recall 
that  the  existing  industrial  development  of  South  America  is 
slight;  that  her  coal  reserves  are  relatively  unimportant;  and  that 
such  coal  fields  as  do  exist,  and  such  industrial  development 
as  is  most  promising,  are  in  portions  of  the  continent  distant  from 
the  great  ore  supplies.  Under  these  conditions  we  can  hardly 
expect  South  America  to  become  an  active  and  important  pro- 
ducer of  iron  and  steel;  and  the  ores  must  find  a  market  at  Ameri- 
can or  European  furnaces.  This  is  in  fact  the  basis  on  which 
their  development  is  now  being  planned;  and  its  soundness  under 
existing  conditions  will  probably  be  thoroughly  tested  within  the 
next  few  years. 

Limited  thus  as  regards  the  trend  of  development,  we  may 
fairly  disregard  the  interior  of  the  continent  as  a  possible  future 
ore  producer,  and  concentrate  attention  on  the  three  coastal 
areas  which  are  of  most  immediate  promise.  These,  which  differ 
widely  in  type  of  ore  and  reserve  tonnage,  are : 

1.  The  north  coast,  Colombia,  Venezuela  and  the  Guianas. 

2.  The  east  coast,  Boazil. 

3.  The  west  coast,  Ecuador,  Peru  and  Chile. 

1.  COLOMBIA,  VENEZUELA  AND  THE  GUIANAS 

In  going  over  the  available  data  relative  to  the  iron  ore  possi- 
bilities of  the  countries  lying  on  the  northern  coast  of  South 

297 


298 


IRON  ORES 


SCALE  OF  MILES 
2901000        tpo     «?o      ego 


^<\ 

*««- 


FIG.  54. — Map    of    South    America    showing    known    iron-ore    deposits. 

(Birkintine.) 


SOUTH  AMERICA  299 

America,  numerous  records  are  found  covering  the  occurrence 
of  iron  ores  at  various  scattered  points.  Iron  ores  have  been 
recorded,  for  example,  as  occurring  at  different  localities  in 
Colombia,  Venezuela  and  the  Guianas;  but  of  all  these  localities 
only  one  seems  to  be  so, located  as  to  give  promise  of  attaining 
importance  in  international  trade.  This  is  the  field,  described 
in  the  next  paragraphs,  which  occupies  part  of  the  Orinoco  delta 
in  Venezuela.  As  to  the  other  areas,  it  need  merely  be  said  that 
brown  ores  which  may  be  of  the  general  type  of  those  mined  on 
the  north  coast  of  Cuba  have  been  reported  from  the  Guianas; 
and  that  in  Colombia  a  small  furnace  has  been  operated  quite 
steadily  on  local  ores  and  coal  for  many  decades.  This  Colom- 
bian locality  is,  however,  in  the  highlands  near  Bogota,  and  the 
ores  are  therefore  of  no  possible  use  to  foreign  furnaces. 

The  Venezuelan  district  has  attracted  attention  at  intervals 
during  the  past  twenty  years,  but  owing  to  political  conditions 
and,  in  part,  to  difficult  navigation,  development  has  never  been 
taken  up  very  seriously.  During  the  past  year  or  two,  however, 
Canadian  interests  have  explored  these  deposits  and  are  preparing 
to  open  them  on  a  large  scale.  The  principal  known  deposits 
are  located  in  the  delta  region  of  the  Orinoco  River,  and  are  from 
50  to  85  miles  from  the  coast.  To  judge  from  available  reports, 
a  considerable  area  must  be  assumed  to  be  iron  bearing,  for  defi- 
nite records  come  from  quite  widely  separated  localities  in  this 
general  region.  From  the  data  at  hand  now,  it  might  be  said 
that  some  300  square  miles  would  cover  all  the  known  de- 
posits; but  there  is  absolutely  no  certainty  as  to  how  richly 
this  general  area  is  mineralized.  As  in  all  thoroughly  weathered 
tropical  regions,  there  is  evidently  a  vast  amount  of  float  ore 
covering  the  surface  at  various  points,  and  this  has  led  to  assump- 
tions of  extraordinary  thickness  of  ore  deposits  of  the  part  of 
sOme  investigators.  The  ore  itself  is  mainly  hematite,  and  re- 
ports indicate  that  the  actual  ore-bodies  are  lenticular  deposits, 
of  considerable  length  as  compared  to  their  average  thickness. 
Some  ten  or  twenty  years  ago  some  of  this  ore  reached  furnaces 
in  the  eastern  United  States;  but  shipments  were  never  large 
and  for  many  years  past  have  ceased  altogether. 

Analyses  of  these  Venezuelan  ores  most  of  which  are  quoted 
from  a  recent  paper  in  the  Iron  Trade  Review,  are  as  follows; 


300  IRON  ORES 

ANALYSES  OF  IRON  ORES,  VENEZUELA 


Metallic  iron 

68  2 

65  30 

66  10 

66  77 

Manganese 

nd 

nd 

nd 

0  069 

Titanic  acid  
Phosphorus.  . 

0.231 
0  016 

n.d. 
0  037 

n.d. 
0  04 

n.d. 
0  033 

Sulphur 

0  042 

0  049 

nd. 

0  Oil 

Silica  
Lime.  ... 

0.140 
n.d. 

3.20 
n.d. 

2.09 
n.d. 

0.70 
3.29 

Moisture  .  . 

n.d. 

0.77 

0.45 

n.d. 

From  private  reports  it  is  known  that  two  general  types  of  ore 
deposits  exist  in  this  Venezuelan  region — contact  deposits  and 
magnetite  lenses.  The  work  recently  taken  up  appears  to  have 
been  done  on  contact  deposits,  and  the  latest  reports  indicate 
that  these  have  shown  the  usual  disappointing  features  of  that 
type  of  deposit. 

2.  BRAZIL 

Of  the  countries  on  the  eastern  and  southeastern  coasts  of 
South  America,  Brazil  seems  to  be  the  only  one  with  serious 
prospects  of  becoming  an  important  producer  of  iron  ore.  In 
Brazil,  however,  iron  ores  are  widely  distributed,  and  one  par- 
ticular group  of  deposits  appears  to  afford  one  of  the  greatest 
known  ore  reserves  in  the  world. 

The  group  of  deposits  referred  to  here  occurs  in  the  state  of 
Minaes  Geraes,  some  300  to  400  miles  north  of  Rio  Janeiro  and 
about  an  equal  distance  from  the  coast.  The  area  in  which  the 
ores  occur,  as  described  from  present  knowledge,  is  several  hun- 
dred miles  square. 

The  ore  district,  according  to  Derby,  contains  two  main  series 
of  rocks,  both  of  which  are  probably  of  pre-Cambrian  age.  The 
basal  series  consists  of  crystalline  schists,  with  many  granitic  in- 
trusions. This  series  is  overlain  by  a  sedimentary  series,  consisting 
chiefly  of  quartzites  and  slates,  with  subordinate  beds  of  lime- 
stone. The  rock  here  spoken  of  as  quartzite  is  more  specifically 
termed  itabirite,  and  is  notable  as  varying  in  composition  from 
essentially  pure  quartz,  through  a  mixture  of  quartz  and  hematite 
grains,  to  pure  hematite.  The  varieties  high  in  iron  form  the 
bedded  ores  which  give  such  importance  to  the  district.  Weather- 
ing has  in  places  broken  down  the  outcrops  of  the  original  beds, 


SOUTH  AMERICA 


301 


so  that  heavy  deposits  of  float  ore  occur  on  the  slopes,  while  iron 
sands  are  found  in  the  stream  valleys. 

The  principal  ore  of  the  region  is  that  which  occurs  as  beds 
associated  with  the  sedimentary  series  above  noted.  Leith  and 
Harder,  in  describing  the  ores,  consider  that  the  deposits  are  of 
purely  sedimentary  origin,  and  that  unlike  the  ores  of  the  Lake 
Superior  district  there  has  been  essentially  no  enrichment  sub- 


Rio  DE  JANEIRO 


FIG.  55. — Sketch  map  of  chief  Brazilian  ore  region.     (After  Leith.) 


sequent  to  their  original  deposition.  These  "  massive  ore  beds 
vary  in  thickness  from  less  than  a  foot  to  more  than  300  feet,  and 
in  length  to  more  than  a  mile." 

The  ores  are  chiefly  hard  dense  hematites,  though  in  places 
more  or  less  magnetite  also  occurs.  They  vary  in  grade,  but  the 
average  is  very  high  in  iron,  and  well  below  the  Bessemer  limit 
in  phosphorus.  Analyses  quoted  from  the  paper  by  Leith  and 
Harder,  cited  in  the  reference  list  on  page  304,  are  as  follows: 


302  IRON  ORES 

ANALYSIS  OF  IRON  ORES,  BRAZIL 


Metallic  iron.  .  .  . 

.  .    68  .  22 

63.99     64.29     68.82    '68.67     69.35     68.79     63.01     68.77 

Manganese  

..      0.44 

0.23       0.29       0.32       0.40       0.15       0.25       0.16       0.09 

Phosphorus  

..      0.049 

0.033     0.087     0.044     0.013     0.010     0.017     0.184     0.015 

Sulphur  

..      0.01 

0.02       0.03       0.01       0.02       0.01       0.02       0.03       0.09 

Silica  

..      0.36 

0.49       0.42       0.32       0.20       0.13       0.27       1.79       0.95 

Alumina  

..      0.73 

4.48       4.04       0.40       0.57       0.33       0.56       0.53       1.47 

Lime  

..      0.10 

tr.           tr.           tr.         0.02         tr.          tr.         0.08       0.04 

Magnesia  

..      0.05 

tr.           tr.           tr.         0.01       0.03         tr.         0.01        tr. 

Moisture  

..      0.65 

3.35       3.10       0.45       0.58       0.31       0.43       6.00       0.20 

As  to  reserve  tonnages,  a  further  quotation  from  Leith  will 
serve  best  to  explain  the  present  status  of  knowledge;  " Esti- 
mates of  tonnage  for  the  region  as  a  whole. would  be  premature 
with  the  present  state  of  knowledge,  but  it  is  certain  that  the 
estimate  of  Dr.  Derby  for  the  International  Congress,  of  two 
billion  tons  for  the  district,  is  conservative.  Of  the  high-grade 
massive  hematite  and  jacutinga  ranging  from  62  percent  to 
69  percent  in  iron,  the  tonnage  is  probably  not  far  short  of  the 
total  reserve  of  available  ores  in  the  Lake  Superior  region  to-day. 
Individual  deposits  contain  several  hundreds  of  millions  of  tons." 
Later  estimates  by  Merriam  and  Leith  place  the  total  probable 
tonnage  for  the  whole  region  at  seven  thousand  millions  or 
thereabout. 

3.  ECUADOR,  PERU  AND  CHILE 

The  occurrence  of  rich  iron  ores  has  been  noted  at  various  points 
in  the  Cordilleran  regions  of  Peru  and  Chile,  but  it  is  obvious 
that  transportation  difficulties  will  suffice  to  rule  these  ores  out 
of  the  world's  markets  for  many  years  to  come.  Another 
series  of  deposits,  however,  are  better  located  in  this  regard, 
and  have  attracted  attention  recently  owing  to  the  expressed 
intention  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Corporation  to  enter  upon 
their  development.  The  deposits  in  question  are  located  in 
the  Coast  Ranges  of  Chile,  and  the  particular  deposits  now  under 
consideration  are  in  the  northern  part  of  that  republic. 

So  far  as  an  understanding  of  the  geology  of  Chile  is  necessary 
to  the  present  discussion,  it  may  be  summarized  by  saying  that 
throughout  most  of  its  length  there  are  three  belts  of  rock, 
roughly  parallel  to  the  coast,  and  differing  both  in  geologic  age 
and  character.  Along  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  republic 
there  are  the  rocks  of  the  Cordilleras,  tilted  and  cut  by  igneous 
intrusions,  and  now  standing  at  great  elevations  above  sea- 


SOUTH  AMERICA  303 

level.  Next  to  the  west  is  a  zone  of  flatter-lying  rocks,  mostly 
sediments  of  Jurassic  or  later  age.  Finally,  close  to  the  coast, 
is  a  range  of  metamorphic  schists  and  limestones,  associated 
with  granites  and  other  igneous  rocks.  Iron  ores  are  known  to 
occur  in  all  three  of  these  series  or  belts  of  rocks;  but  it  is  only 
the  deposits  found  in  the  coast  belt  that  are  likely  to  be  developed 
commercially  in  the  near  future. 

In  this  coastal  area  iron-ore  deposits  are  found  at  various 
points,  scattered  almost  from  one 'end  of  Chile  to  the  other,  but 
the  best  prospects  for  development  appear  to  be  in  the  northern 
portion  of  the  country,  in  the  provinces  of  Autofagasta,  Ata- 
cama  and  Coquimbo.  The  ores  are  chiefly  hematite,  with 
occasional  magnetite,  and  many  of  the  deposits  are  high  in  iron 
and  low  in  phosphorus.  No  satisfactory  data  are  available  as 
to  their  origin  or  general  type  but  such  scattered  notes  as  are 
on  hand  indicate  that  they  are  probably  either  replacements 
of  some  of  the  metamorphosed  sediments,  or  are  contact 
deposits  of  the  usual  western  type. 

The  specific  properties  on  which  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Corpora- 
tion has  commenced  operations  are  known  as  the  Tofo  conces- 
sions, located  about  25  miles  north  of  the  port  of  Coquimbo, 
and  about  3  miles  from  the  coast.  They  have  been  operated 
for  some  time  by  a  French  company  which,  a  few  years  ago, 
erected  two  blast  furnaces  near  the  deposits.  This  particular 
group  of  deposits  is  credited  with  containing  some  100  million 
tons  of  ore. 

ANALYSIS  OF  IRON  ORES,  CHILE 


Metallic  iron  
Manganese  

68. 
....       tr  , 

1 

20 

56 

tr 

2 
.64 

63 
0 

3 
.29 
08 

55 
0 

4 
.56 
.12 

68 
0 

5 
81 
16 

Phosphorus  
Sulphur  . 

0. 

o 

Oil 
038 

0 

o 

.039 
.007 

0 
0 

.210 
013 

0 
0 

.029 
.005 

0 
0 

036 
010 

Silica  
Alumina  
Lime  
Magnesia  

1. 
0. 
0. 
0. 

20 
80 
70 
21 

9 
5 
0 
1 

.80 
.50 
.20 
.40 

3 
2 
0 
0 

40 

.80 
.20 

.28 

12 
0 
3 
4 

.30 
.70 
.70 

.08 

1 
1 

0 
0 

30 
90 
03 
56 

1.  Juan  Soldado  mine,  near  Serenas. 

2,  3,  4.  Cerro  Grande  mines,  near  Coquimbo. 
5.  Pan  de  Azucar  mines,  near  Guayacan. 

Reference  List  on  South  American  Iron  Ores. — The  following 
brief  list  covers  a  number  of  papers  and  reports  dealing  with 


304  IRON  ORES 

South  American  iron  ores,  sufficient  to  serve  as  a  guide  in  further 
reading. 

BIRKINBINE,  J.     Iron  Ores  of  South  America.     16th  Ann.  Report  U.  S. 

Geol.  Survey,  part  3,  pp.  63-70,  1895. 
DERBY,  O.  A.     The  Iron  Ores  of  Brazil.     Iron  Ore  Resources  of  the  World, 

vol.  2,  pp.  813-822,  Stockholm,  1910. 
KiLBURN-ScoTT,    H.     Iron   Ores   of   Brazil.      Eng.,   and  Mining  Journal, 

Dec.  6,  1902. 
LEITH,  C.  K.  AND   HARDER,  E.  C.     Hematite  Ores  of  Brazil.     Economic 

Geology,  vol.  6,  pp.  670-686,  1911. 
ANON.     Status  of  Venezuelan  Iron-ore  Development.     Iron  Trade  Review, 

March  20,  1913,  pp.  685-687. 
ANON.     The  Extent  of  the  Chilian  Iron-ore  Deposits.     Iron  Trade  Review, 

Feb.  20,  1913,  pp.  459-462. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
THE  IRON  ORES  OF  EUROPE 

In  attempting  to  summarize  the  main  facts  concerning  the  iron 
ore  deposits  of  Europe,  the  difficulty  arises  from  the  mass  of 
details  available,  and  not  from  their  scarcity.  The  space  avail- 
able for  this  discussion  in  the  present  volume  is  necessarily 
limited,  and  in  this  chapter  only  an  outline  of  the  subject  can  be 
presented.  In  doing  this,  the  ore  deposits  have  been  described 
by  countries,  except  in  the  most  important  case  of  all — the  Lor- 
raine-Luxembourg region.  The  fact  that  this  region  is  the  most 
important  in  the  world  to-day  might  be  readily  overlooked  if  it 
were  separated  in  discussion,  as  it  is  politically,  among  four  dif- 
ferent administrative  divisions. 

The  order  of  discussion  in  this  chapter  will  therefore  be  as 
follows  : 

1.  The  Lorraine-Luxembourg  District. 

2.  Other  German  Ore  Districts. 

3.  Other  French  Ore  Districts. 

4.  Great  Britain. 

5.  Norway,  Sweden  and  Finland. 

6.  Spain  and  Portugal. 

7.  Russia. 

8.  Austria,  Hungary  and  Bosnia. 

9.  Italy,  Greece  and  the  Balkan  Region. 
10.  Belgium. 

THE    LORRAINE-LUXEMBOURG    DISTRICT 

By  far  the  most  important  iron-ore  district  in  Europe  is  that  to 
be  considered  under  the  above  heading.  The  field  occupies  the 
junction  points  of  the  French,  German,  Belgian  and  Luxembourg 
frontiers,  and  is  divided,  though  very  unequally,  among  the  coun- 
tries named.  The  total  productive  ore  area  amounts  to  almost 
300,000  acres,  or  approximately  500  square  miles  and  prac- 
20  305 


306 


IRON  ORES 


tically  all  of  this  is  underlain  by  one  or  more  beds  of  workable 
ore.  Of  the  total  acreage  approximately  180,000  acres  are  in 
France,  in  the  Departments  of  Meuse  and  of  Meurthe-et-Moselle; 
106,000  acres  are  in  Germany,  in  Lothringen;  a  little  over  9000 
acres  are  in  Luxembourg;  and  a  few  hundred  acres,  now  prac- 
tically worked  out,  in  Belgium. 

The  ores  occur  as  a  group  of  sedimentary  beds  in  the  lower 


FIG.  56. — Map  of  Minette  region  of  Lorraine  and  Luxemburg. 

portion  of  the  Jurassic  series;  which  here  outcrops  in  a  trough 
dipping  southwest  at  low  angles,  usually  not  over  2  or  3  degrees. 
The  productive  or  ore-bearing  portion  of  the  series  varies  in 
thickness  from  75  to  175  feet.  The  ore  beds  themselves  vary 
greatly  in  number  and  thickness,  from  point  to  point  in  the  area; 
though  one  of  them,  the  so-called  "gray  bed,"  is  fairly  continuous 
and  uniform.  At  some  points  eight  or  nine  distinct  ore  beds 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  EUROPE  307 

have  been  noted;  at  others  there  is  only  one  bed  worthy  of  con- 
sideration. In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  the  beds  tend  to  de- 
crease in  number  and  to  become  individually  thinner  toward  the 
southwest,  while  their  ore  also  becomes  more  siliceous  and  less 
limey  in  the  same  direction.  As  the  dip  is  also  carrying  them 
deeper  below  the  surface  as  we  go  southwest,  it  is  evident  that 
the  limit  of  workability  in  that  direction  is  not  definitely  defined, 
but  is  a  matter  of  economical  working  and  of  commercial  grade. 
The  limits  on  the  other  sides  of  the  area  are  definitely  fixed,  for 
on  the  north,  east  and  southeast  the  ore  beds  outcrop  at  the 
surface. 

The  ores  are  oolitic,  like  our  own  Birmingham  red  ores,  and 
like  them  are  of  sedimentary  origin.  The  name  "  minette,"  which 
is  applied  to  them,  was  given  as  a  contemptuous  distinction  from 
the  "mine"  ores  of  another  horizon,  which  were  formerly  worked 
extensively  while  the  minette  ores  were  neglected.  The  coming 
of  the  basic  Bessemer  process,  however,  has  made  the  formerly 
despised  minette  ores  important  factors  in  the  world's  industry. 

Mineralogically  the  minette  ores  are  composed  of  oolitic  par- 
ticles of  iron  oxide  and  iron  carbonate,  cemented  together  by  a 
matrix  which  may  be  calcareous,  siliceous,  or  clayey.  They  are 
often  described  as  hydrated  or  brown  hematites,  and  in  fact  they 
are  chiefly  so;  but  iron  carbonate  is  invariably  present,  so  that 
some  of  their  iron  is  in  the  ferrous  form,  and  some  of  the  carbon 
dioxide  shown  on  analysis  is  to  be  credited  to  the  ore  itself,  and 
not  to  the  limey  matrix. 

They  are  characteristically  high  in  phosphorus,  much  higher 
than  our  Birmingham  red  ores,  and  are  therefore  well  adapted  for 
use  in  making  pig  iron  to  be  converted  by  the  basic  Bessemer 
process,  where  high  phosphorus  is  a  necessity  of  the  process.  As 
has  been  noted,  the  beds  vary  greatly  in  number  and  thickness. 
Where  the  series  is  best  developed,  the  following  seven  beds  are 
found,  ranged  in  descending  order: 

a.  Red  siliceous  bed. 

b.  Red  calcareous  bed. 

c.  Yellow  bed. 

d.  Gray  bed. 

e.  Brown  bed. 

f .  Black  bed. 

g.  Green  bed. 


308 


IRON  ORES 


These  vary  in  composition  from  point  to  point,  but  in  general  it 
may  be  said  that  the  red,  yellow  and  gray  beds  are  fairly  well 
balanced  in  their  lime-silica  ratio,  while  the  three  lowest  beds  are 
commonly  both  relatively  and  actually  high  in  silica. 

The  following  analyses,  quoted  from  various  sources,1  will  suffice 
to  indicate  the  usual  range  in  composition : 

ANALYSES   OF    MINETTE   ORES,   LORRAINE-LUXEMBOURG   DISTRICT 

Carbon 


Metallic 

Lime 

Mag- 

Silica 

Alumina 

Phos- 

dioxide 

iron 

nesia 

phorus 

and 

water 

Red  bed;  Lothringen  

.      40  .  4  % 

8.2% 

0. 

5% 

9.6% 

5.5% 

0.7% 

14.03 

Yellow  bed;  Lothringen.  . 

.      38.0 

9.8 

1 

5 

7.0 

4.2 

0.3 

n.  d. 

Gray  bed;  Lothringen.  .  .  . 

.      31.8 

19.0 

0 

.5 

7.9 

2.3 

0.7 

22.0 

Brown  bed;  Lothringen..  . 

.      24.0 

8.6 

2 

.0 

16.6 

6.5 

0.6 

n.  d. 

Black  bed;  Lothringen.  .  . 

.      39.7 

5.9 

0 

5 

15.1 

5.2 

0.7 

14.0 

Upper  bed,  Nancy  

.      36.0 

7.0 

11.0 

Middle  bed,  Nancy  

.      36.0 

4.0 

15.0 

Lower  bed,  Nancy 

.      33.0 

4.0 

17.0 

Lower  bed,  Liverdun  

.      32.4 

14.1 

10.32 

6.02 

Gray  bed;  Aubou6  

.      38.64 

11.20 

6.60 

5.50 

0.63 

Gray  bed;  Joeuf  

.      37.29 

14.90 

4.50 

4.98 

0.62 

Gray  bed;  Moutiers  

.      38.24 

11.30 

6.56 

Gray  bed;  Pienne  

.      40.6 

11.10 

1 

.20 

6.69 

3.24 

0.78 

19.04 

Gray  bed;  Landres  

.      39  .  20 

9.05 

1 

.05 

6.20 

6.10 

18.70 

Gray  bed;  Sancy  

.      39.90 

11.00 

1 

.10 

6.00 

4.90 

0.77 

19.40 

Gray  bed;  Hussigny  

.      35.5 

7.4 

17.2 

8.3 

15.5 

Gray  bed;  Godbrange 

.      36.3 

6.8 

15.1 

9.9 

15.5 

Gray  bed;  Tiercelet 

.      37.1 

6.9 

15.4 

8.2 

14.5 

The  analyses  in  the  preceding  table  will  serve  to  give  some  idea 
of  the  range  in  composition  of  the  minette  ores,  in  different  beds 
and  at  different  points.  In  studying  them  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  in  this  case  high  iron  content  is  not  necessarily  a  test 
of  comparative  value,  for  the  entire  mining  and  metallurgical 
practice  of  the  minette  district  depends  upon  the  basic  Bessemer 
process.  In  mining  the  aims  are  therefore  to  secure  a  mixture 
which  will  yield  a  pig  iron  suitably  high  in  phosphorus  for  this 
process,  and  to  have  this  mixture  self-fluxing  or  very  close  to  it. 
Reports  indicate  that  the  average  furnace  yield  in  the  district 
is  about  32  percent,  which,  allowing  for  silicon  in  the  pig  metal, 
means  that  the  average  ore  charge  must  have  contained  about 
31  percent  metallic  iron. 

1  Of  the  analyses  quoted  in  the  above  table,  the  first  five  are  taken  from 
the  report  on  the  German  portion  of  the  district,  by  Einecke  and  Kohler, 
and  the  remainder  from  the  report  on  the  French  minette  ore  by  Nicou. 
Both  reports  are  published  in  the  volumes  on  Iron  Ore  Resources  of  the 
World,  Stockholm,  1910. 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  EUROPE  309 

1  Mining  practice  has  been  conditioned  by  the  general  attitude 
of  the  ores,  by  the  presence  of  faults,  and  by  advances  in  geologic 
theories.     It  has  already  been  noted  that  the  ore  beds  dip  at 

2  or  3  degrees  to  the  southwest;  and  it  may  now  be  added  that 
the  field  is  intersected  by  a  number  of  faults  of  considerable  extent 
and  throw.     When  mining  first  began,  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century,  the  outcrop  ores  were  of  course  first  attacked,  and  for 
a  time  it  was  currently  believed  (as  in  our  own  Birmingham 
district)  that  the  ores  were  relatively  superficial  replacements, 
and  would  ultimately  disappear  in  depth.     This  geologic  error 
had  a  curious  sequel  in  the  political  history  of  the  region.     For 
the  war  of  1870-71  was  in  reality  an  exchange  of  blood  for  iron 
in  a  way  that  the  world  has  not  appreciated.     The  bulk  of  the 
fighting  in  the  early  months  was  in  this  iron  region,  and  when 
the  war  closed  France  had  ceded  to  Germany  practically  all  of 
the  ore  outcrop,  and  had  apparently  resigned  all  possibility  of 
becoming  a  great  steel-producing  nation.     But  the  rapid  spread 
of  the  basic  Bessemer  process  gave  higher  value  to  the  minette 
ores,  and  the  slow  spread  of  scientific  ideas  finally  encouraged 
attempts  to  find  them  at  depth.     Ultimately,  drilling  on  the 
French  plateau  showed  that  the  ores  were  there  in  good  grade, 
and  that  the  reserve  tonnage  still  retained  by  France  is  greater 
than  that  ceded  to  Germany  in  1871. 

As  matters  stand  now  part  of  the  ore  is  still  workable  in  open 
cuts  along  the  outcrop,  but  the  bulk  of  it  is  obtained  by  under- 
ground work.  Some  of  the  underground  ore  is  secured  by 
means  of  tunnels  or  slopes  driven  down  or  along  the  dip,  either 
from  the  main  outcrop  or  from  the  sides  of  the  little  ravines 
which  cut  into  the  plateau  at  various  points.  Another  portion, 
becoming  of  increasing  importance,  is  secured  by  shaft  mining 
from  points  on  the  plateau.  The  working  costs  are  low,  averag- 
ing perhaps  twenty-five  cents  per  ton  in  the  open  cuts,  and  fifty 
cents  per  ton  for  shaft  ore.  Local  furnaces  can  therefore  get 
their  ore  charged  at  a  total  cost  of  not  much  over  two  cents  per 
unit  of  contained  iron.  This  is  somewhat  better  than  can  be 
done  at  Sydney  or  Birmingham;  but  on  the  other  hand  the 
German  coke  cost  is  higher  than  in  either  Alabama  or  Nova 
Scotia,  so  that  the  total  cost  of  making  pig  iron  is  probably 
higher  in  the  minette  region  than  in  the  two  most  closely  com- 
parable with-it.  When  it  comes  to  conversion  into  steel,  how- 


310 


IRON  ORES 


ever,  the  value  of  the  Thomas  slag  probably  throws  the  balance 
back  again  in  favor  of  the  German  mills. 

The  district  has  been  referred  to  as  one  of  the  greatest  in 
the  world,  but  fortunately  it  is  possible  to  put  the  matter  on  a 
purely  quantitative  basis.  The  following  figures  on  the  ore 
reserves  of  the  minette  region  are  summarized  from  the  Inter- 
national Geologic  Congress  report  on  the  iron  ore  resources  of 
the  world : 

ORE  RESERVES  OF  THE  LORRAINE-LUXEMBOURG  DISTRICT 


Country 

Germany 

France.  . 


Luxembourg. . . . 
Belgium 


Ore 

area, 

acres 


106,000 


180,000 


9,100 
750 


Basin  or  field 

a.  Aumetz-Arsweiler  plateau. 

b.  Between  Fentsch  and  Orne. 

c.  South  of  the  Orne. 

d.  Second  class  limey  ores. 

a.  Longwy  basin. 

b.  Briey  basin. 

c.  Nancy  basin. 

d.  Second  class  siliceous  ores. 

Practically  exhausted. 


Reserve 
tonnage 

1,125,000,000 
383,500,000 
321,500,000 
500,000,000 
300,000,000 

2,000,000,000 
200,000,000 
500,000,000 
270,000,000 


Total  reserve  tonnage,  Lorraine-Luxembourg  region 5,600,000,000 

There  are  slight  discrepancies  in  form  between  the  various 
estimates  combined  in  the  preceding  table.  The  French  second 
class,  reserve  consists  of  ores  high  in  iron  but  also  high  in  silica; 
the  German  second  class,  on  the  other  hand,  contains  ores  rather 
low  in  iron,  but  high  in  lime  and  low  in  silica.  I  have  checked 
over  some  of  the  areas,  thicknesses  and  tonnages,  and  all  of  the 
estimates  seem  to  have  been  made  on  a  very  conservative  basis. 

In  comparing  this  estimate  of  5600  million  tons  of  ore  in  the 
Lorraine-Luxembourg  district  with  the  figures  for  the  Lake 
Superior  field,  the  differences  in  average  metallic  content  must 
be  borne  in  mind.  The  total  minette  tonnage  will  yield  perhaps 
1900  million  tons  of  metallic  iron — or  say  two  thousand  million 
tons  of  pig  metal.  This  is  somewhat  more  than  we  can  fairly 
expect  from  the  present  Lake  reserves.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  minette  ores  are  sedimentary  in 
origin,  that  their  total  area  and  thickness  are  well  known, 
and  that  therefore  the  present  estimates  of  their  reserve  tonnage 
come  close  to  giving  the  absolute  maximum  of  ore  workable  under 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  EUROPE  311 

present  conditions.  In  the  Lake  region  it  is  not  possible  to 
estimate  so  closely,  and  even  the  highest  of  the  current  Lake 
estimates  will  probably  be  exceeded  by  the  facts,  owing  to 
extensions  in  depth  and  laterally  on  the  older  ranges. 

In  order  to  get  an  idea  of  the  relative  importance  of  this 
district  as  compared  with  other  large  ore  producers,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  combine  the  statistics  of  production  in  Luxembourg,  in 
German  Lorraine,  and  in  the  French  Department  of  Meurthe-et- 
Moselle.  This  has  been  done  in  the  following  table,  the  in- 
dividual figures  being  taken  in  round  numbers  from  a  British 
Board  of  Trade  report  of  recent  date. 

PRODUCTION  OF  IRON  ORE,  LUXEMBOURG-LORRAINE,  1810-1911 


Years 

Luxembourg 

Annual  output, 
Germany, 
Lothringen 

in  metric  tons 
France, 
Meurthe-et- 
Moselle 

Total, 
entire 
district 

1872-1875 

1,229,000 

771,000 

925,000 

2,925,000 

1876-1880 

1,507,000 

785,000 

1,274,000 

3,566,000 

1881-1885 

2,423,000 

1,606,000 

1,906,000 

5,935,000 

1886-1890 

2,927,000 

2,675,000 

2,159,000 

7,761,000 

1891-1895 

3,482,000 

3,630,000 

2,876,000 

9,988,000 

1896-1900 

5,440,000 

6,075,000 

3,872,000 

15,387,000 

1901-1905 

5,616,000 

9,874,000 

5,039,000 

20,529,000 

1906-1910 

6,407,000 

14,245,000 

9,647,000 

30,299,000 

1911 

5,963,000 

17,468,000 

14,619,000 

38,050,000 

When  summarized  in  this  fashion,  the  statistics  are  of  far  more 
general  value  than  when  published  by  individual  countries.  The 
last  column  shows  the  steady  increase  in  importance  of  the  dis- 
trict as  a  whole,  and  its  status  relative  to  our  own  Lake  region. 
From  the  other  columns  we  get  some  idea  of  the  slow  growth  of 
Luxembourg,  whose  production  has  perhaps  reached  nearly  its 
maximum;  of  the  rapid  development  in  Lothringen  for  some  dec- 
ades; and  of  the  recent  great  advance  on  the  French  side  of 
the  line,  due  chiefly  to  the  deep  level  mines  of  the  Briey  region. 

OTHER   GERMAN   IRON-ORE   DISTRICTS 

Though  the  Lorraine  minette  district  just  described  contains 
the  bulk  of  the  German  ore  reserves,  a  number  of  other  districts 
contain  ore  aggregating  large  tonnages.  Some  idea  of  the 
relative  importance  of  the  different  German  districts  can  be 
gained  by  inspection  of  the  following  table,  quoted  from  the 


312 


IRON  ORES 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  EUROPE 


313 


report  by   Einecke  and    Kohler  which    has    been    previously 
mentioned : 


IRON-ORE  RESERVES  OF  GERMANY 

Iron-ore  reserves, 
metric  tons 


Lorraine  and  Luxembourg 2,630,000,000 

Lahn  and  Dill  districts 258,250,000 

Ilsede  and  Salzgitter 278,000,000 

Bavaria 181,000,000 

Siegerland 115,700,000 

Thuringia 104,200,000 

Wurtemburg 110,000,000 

Other  smaller  districts,  total 230,550,000 


Total  German  reserves 3,907,700,000 


Metallic  iron 

content,  metric 

tons 

845,000,000 

124,000,000 

100,000,000 

62,000,000 

53,000,000 

46,000,000 

42,000,000 

88,000,000 

1,360,000,000 


Of  these  districts,  the  most  important  from  an  international 
viewpoint  is  of  course  the  Lorraine-Luxembourg  region,  whose 
output  far  surpasses  all  the  others  combined.  Of  the  remainder, 
those  which  have  some  influence  on  the  steel  industry  are  the 
Lahn,  Dill  and  Ilsede  districts.  The  Ilsede  ores  are  brown 
hematites  of  Cretaceous  age,  while  the  Lahn  and  Dill  regions 
furnish  sedimentary  red  and  brown  hematites  from  Devonian 
beds. 

On  a  preceding  page  (p.  311)  detailed  statistics  are  given  rela- 
tive to  the  iron  ore  output  of  Luxembourg  and  German  Lorraine. 
The  following  table,  made  up  from  a  recent  British  Board  of 
Trade  report,  will  suffice  to  give  a  summary  of  the  general  iron- 
ore  situation  of  the  German  Empire  (and  Luxembourg). 

IRON-ORE  PRODUCTION,  ETC.,  OF  GERMANY,  1872-1911 

Net  available 
for  consumption 

5,403,000 
4,936,000 
7,513,000 
9,150,000 
10,919,000 
16,702,000 
21,885,000 
31,160,000 
37,505,000 

Of  the  total  home  production,  about  four-fifths  now  comes  from 
the  Luxembourg-Lothringen  minette  region.  The  imports  are 


Total 

Years 

German 

Exports 

Imports 

output 

1872-1875 

5,397,000 

317,000 

323,000 

1876-1880 

5,559,000 

968,000 

345,000 

1881-1885 

8,414,000 

1,697,000 

796,000 

1886-1890 

10,018,000 

2,003,000 

1,135,000 

1891-1895 

11,491,000 

2,293,000 

1,721,000 

1896-1900 

16,232,000 

2,986,000 

3,456,000 

1901-1905 

19,926,000 

3,098,000 

5,057,000 

1906-1910 

26,158,000 

3,267,000 

8,269,000 

1911 

29,399,000 

2,541,000 

10,647,000 

314  IRON  ORES 

divided  about  equally  between  those  from  Sweden,  from  Spain, 
and  from  the  French  portion  of  the  minette  area. 


OTHER   FRENCH   IRON-ORE   DISTRICTS 

Of  the  3300  million  tons  of  ore  reserves  credited  to  France, 
3000  million  are  found  in  the  French  portion  of  the  Lorraine  re- 
gion, which  has  been  previously  described.  The  bulk  of  the 
remaining  reserve  tonnage  occurs  in  two  districts,  widely  sepa- 
rated geographically,  and  also  differing  greatly  in  the  character 
and  association  of  their  ores.  These  two  districts  are : 

1.  Western  France;  where  carbonate  and  hematite  ores  are 
mined  from  beds  of  Ordovician  age.     These  ores  are  of  sedimen- 
tary origin,  and  occur  underlying  quite  extensive  areas.     The 
workable  portions  of  the  beds  seem  to  be  from  5  to  7  feet  thick 
in  most  of  the  mining  districts.     The  following  analyses  of  ship- 
ments from  various  points  in  Normandy  and  Brittany  will  serve 
to  show  the  range  in  commercial  ores. 

May  sur  Orne  Lay  Naze 

Metallic  iron 48 . 32  48 . 91  47 . 94 

Manganese 0.32  0.30  0.38 

Phosphorus 0.716  0.72  0.56 

Sulphur 0.049  n.  d.  0.01 

Silica 13.80  15.79  15.71 

Lime 2.54  3.01  0.08 

Magnesia 1 . 03  1 . 44  n.  d. 

Water 4.07  4.92  2.0 

2.  Southern  France;  where  hematite  and  carbonate  ores  are 
mined  in  the  department  of  Pyrenees  Orientales.     The  ores  here 
occur  as  lenticular  bodies,  associated  with  metamorphosed  schists 
of  Silurian  age,  and  probably  represent  replacements  of  limestone 
beds  inter-stratified  with  the  schists.     The  carbonates  are  cal- 

Port  Venders 

Metallic  iron 57.28 

Manganese 0 . 04 

Phosphorus 0 . 009 

Sulphur 0.33 

Silica 15.8 

Lime 0 . 08 

Magnesia 0.1 

Water..  3.42 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  EUROPE  315 

cined  before  shipment.  The  ores  of  this  district  are  of  high  grade, 
and  low  enough  in  phosphorus  for  acid  Bessemer  and  open-hearth 
pig.  The  preceding  analysis  gives  data  on  this  point,  repre- 
senting a  year's  shipments. 

The  output  of  the  French  portion  of  the  minette  region,  in  the 
Department  of  Meurthe-et-Moselle,  has  been  given  in  a  table 
on  page  311.  The  following  table,  made  up  from  several  in  a 
recent  British  Board  of  Trade  report,  gives  data  on  the  total  ore 
production,  as  well  as  the  exports  and  imports,  of  France. 

IRON-ORE  PRODUCTION,  ETC.,  OF  FRANCE,  1871-1911 


Years 

Total 
French 
output 

Exports 

Imports 

Net  available 
for  consumption 

1871-1875 

2,501,000 

240,000 

669,000 

2,930,000 

1876-1880 

2,447,000 

88,000 

958,000 

3,317,000 

1881-1885 

2,970,000 

103,000 

1,406,000 

4,273,000 

1886-1890 

2,804,000 

241,000 

1,314,000 

3,877,000 

1891-1895 

3,592,000 

273,000 

1,582,000 

4,901,000 

1896-1900 

4,685,000 

283,000 

1,988,000 

6,390,000 

1901-1905 

5,989,000 

781,000 

1,761,000 

6,969,000 

1906-1910 

10,807,000 

2,970,000 

1,572,000 

9,409,000 

1911 

16,127,000 

6,077,000 

1,329,000 

11,379,000 

The  minette  district,  it  will  be  noted  on  comparing  tables  pre- 
ceding, now  furnishes  about  90  percent  of  the  total  French 
ore  output.  The  ore  exports  are  mostly  from  this  district,  into 
Germany  and  Belgium.  The  imports  are  chiefly  from  the  Ger- 
man portion  of  the  Lorraine  region,  and  from  Spain. 

GREAT   BRITAIN 

Disregarding  various  scattered  localities  and  types  of  ore,  most 
of  which  are  now  of  merely  historic  interest,  the  iron-ore  resources 
of  the  British  Isles  can  be  grouped  in  three  classes,  differing  their 
geologic  associations,  their  location,  and  their  grade  of  ore. 

;These  three  classes  are  (1)  the  hematite  ores  of  Cumberland 
and  Lancashire,  (2)  the  carbonate  ores  of  the  Mesozoic  rocks, 
and  (3)  the  carbonate  ores  of  the  Coal  Measures.  They  will  be 
described  in  the  order  named. 

1.  Hematites  of  Cumberland  and  Lancashire. — About  two 
million  tons  of  ore  per  year  are  mined  in  western  England,  in 
Cumberland  and  Lancashire,  the  bulk  of  the  operating  mines 


316 


IRON  ORES 


being  located  near  the  coast,  from  Whitehaven  southward  for 
thirty  miles  or  so.  As  later  noted,  this  district  contains  most  of 
the  remaining  high-grade  reserves  of  Great  Britain,  and  is  of 
special  interest  on  that  account. 

The  ores  are  red  hematites,  and  are  associated  chiefly  with 
Carboniferous  limestones,  though  some  of  the  less  important  de- 
posits occur  in  other  rocks.  The  predominant  type  of  deposit, 
however,  is  a  replacement  or  filling  in  a  heavy  limestone  bed. 


FIG.  58. — Hematite  deposit,  Cumberland  region.     (Kendall.) 

The  dip  of  the  rocks  varies  from  5  to  25  degrees  in  different 
portions  of  the  district,  and  the  limestone  beds  differ  somewhat 
in  composition  and  thickness.  These  factors  have  caused  dif- 
ferences in  the  size,  form  and  general  relations  of  the  resulting 
ore  deposits.  In  places  the  ore  occurs  in  a  tabular  or  bed-like 
form,  having  replaced  most  of  a  thin  limestone  layer;  at  other 
points  the  ore-body  is  highly  irregular  in  form.  Some  of  the 
deposits  appear  to  owe  their  localization  to  the  presence  of  faults 
in  the  rock-series.  In  addition  to  the  replacement  deposits, 
instances  of  cavity  filling  are  known. 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  EUROPE 


317 


As  to  composition,  the  typical  ores  of  this  region  are  high 
grade  so  far  as  iron  content  is  concerned,  and  low  in  phosphorus. 
The  following  analyses  have  been  selected  from  those  published 
by  Kendall  as  being  fairly  representative  of  the  hematite  ores 
as  usually  mined  and  shipped. 


FIG.  59. — Map  of   Newcastle  coal  field  and  Mdidlesborough  ore   district. 

(Kirchoff.) 

ANALYSES    OF    HEMATITE    ORES,    CUMBERLAND    AND   LANCASHIRE. 

(KENDALL) 

Metallic  iron 

Manganese  oxide 

Silica 

Alumina 

Lime 

Magnesia 

Sulphuric  acid 

Phosphoric  acid 

Water 

Physically  the  ores  range  from  dense  massive  hematite  to 


62 

.11 

59 

.09 

58 

.50 

55 

.03 

52 

.75 

48 

.81 

tr. 

0 

.32 

0 

.18 

0 

.24 

1 

.49 

1 

.12 

4 

.96 

7 

.36 

9 

.42 

16 

.45 

7 

.27 

15 

.38 

1 

.94 

0 

.97 

1 

.25 

1 

.87 

2 

.10 

n.d. 

0 

.41 

0 

.70 

1 

.12 

0 

.56 

0 

.21 

0 

.21 

0 

12 

0 

.11 

0 

.19 

0 

.24 

0 

.64 

0 

.70 

o 

.05 

0 

.01 

0 

.05 

0 

.04 

n 

.d. 

n 

.d. 

0 

.03 

0 

.03 

0 

.05 

0 

.03 

0 

.03 

0 

.02 

3 

.10 

5 

.00 

5 

.55 

4 

.34 

12 

.54 

13 

.54 

318  IRON  ORES 

soft  ores,  high  in  moisture  and  probably  in  part  hydrated.  The 
last  two  analyses  of  the  preceding  tables  are  of  soft  ores  of  this 
type. 

Some  of  the  individual  ore-bodies  are  of  large  extent,  Lous 
for  example  noting  one  which  still  contains  over  25  million  tons 
of  ore.  The  total  unmined  reserves  of  the  district  may  easily 
amount  to  several  hundred  million  tons.  No  very  definite 
data  on  this  subject  seem  to  be  available,  however,  owing  prob- 
ably to  the  great  expense  (per  ton  developed)  of  properly 
exploring  deposits  of  this  general  type. 

2.  Carbonates  of  the  Mesozoic  Rocks. — These  are  at  present  by 
far  the  most  important  source  of  domestic  ore  supply  for  British 
furnaces,  not  because  of  their  grade,  but  on  account  of  their 
location.  The  principal  production  is  in  the  Cleveland  district 
of  Yorkshire,  where  six  million  tons  or  so  are  annually  mined; 
while  Lincolnshire  and  Northamptonshire  supply  about  half 
as  much  between  them  from  similar  beds. 

The  ores  of  this  group  are  impure  carbonates,  largely  altered 
near  the  outcrop  to  brown  ore.  In  the  Cleveland  district  the 
worked  ores  are  found  in  beds  interstratified  with  shales  of 
Liassic  age.  The  following  general  section,  quoted  from  Kendall, 
will  give  some  idea  of  the  general  relations. 

Ft.      In. 

Upper  Liassic  shales 193  .  .  . 

Iron  ore-main  seam 11  9 

Shale 10  9 

Iron  ore 2  6 

Middle  Liassic        Shale 20  0 

Iron  ore 1  6 

Shale 30  0 

Sandstone 40  0 

Lower  Liassic  shales  and  limestones 700 

Of  the  three  beds  noted  in  the  above  section,  only  one — the 
topmost — is  normally  workable  under  cover.  In  various  por- 
tions of  the  area  where  this  main  bed  is  known  to  occur,  it  ranges 
in  thickness  from  12  feet  down  to  4  feet  or  less.  Louis  states 
that  in  the  portions  of  the  main  bed  over  4  feet  thick  there 
are  still  some  450  million  tons  of  workable  ore. 

The  ore  occurs  in  beds,  and  has  been  variously  regarded  as  a 
direct  original  sediment,  and  as  a  replacement  of  limestone.  The 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  EUROPE 


319 


latter  conclusion  is  stated  very  definitely  by  some  authorities, 
but  the  structural  evidence  offered  in  support  of  this  conclusion 
does  not  seem  to  justify  its  acceptance  without  further  investi- 
gation. On  the  contrary,  the  available  records  would  seem  to 
indicate  that  such  replacement  as  has  occurred,  except  locally, 
was  probably  contemporary  with  the  original  deposition  of  the 
strata  involved.  Pending  more  certain  results,  it  appears  best 
to  consider  the  ores  as  of  sedimentary  origin. 

As  to  composition,  the  ore  mined  grades  from  25  to  35  percent 


reatAyton 


FIG.  60. — Map  of  Cleveland  ore  or  Middlesboro  region.     (Kirchoff.) 

metallic  iron,  and  averages  close  to  30  percent.  It  ranges  from 
0.6  to  1.5  percent  phosphorus,  silica  6  to  15  percent  or  even  more 
occasionally,  alumina  3  to  8  percent,  while  lime  and  magnesia 
together  average  about  7  or  8  percent.  The  ore  as  mined  carries 
25  to  30  percent  carbon  dioxide  and  water.  It  is  calcined  before 
charging  to  the  furnace,  and  this  operation  brings  the  iron  content 
of  the  ore  as  used  up  to  40  or  42  percent. 

3 .  Carbonates  of  the  Coal  Measures. — Practically  all  of  the  British 
coal  fields  contain  beds  of  iron  carbonate,  varying  greatly  in 
thickness.  Formerly  these  ores  were  mined  to  a  very  large  ex- 
tent, but  now  they  are  handled  only  in  Scotland  and  in  Stafford- 
shire, which  produce  annually  in  the  neighborhood  of  one  million 
tons  each.  The  tonnage  remaining  is  enormous,  but  there  is  no 


320 


IRON  ORES 


reason  to  consider  it  as  an  important  reserve  either  now,  or  in  the 
near  future. 

As  can  be  seen  from  the  preceding  brief  descriptions,  the  posi- 
tion of  Great  Britain  as  regards  iron-ore  resources  is  peculiar — 
perhaps  more  curious  than  satisfactory.  The  matter  may  be 
summarized  by  saying  that  England  has  still  several  hundred 
million  tons  of  high-grade  ore  which  would  be  salable  anywhere; 
that  she  has  in  addition  perhaps  double  that  quantity  of  low-grade 
ore,  workable  because  of  its  nearness  to  coal  and  markets;  and 
that  England,  Scotland  and  Wales  have  thousands  of  millions  of 
tons  of  ore  now  unworkable,  but  which  may  be  serviceable  in  the 
future  provided  that  at  that  future  date  there  is  still  any  other 
good  reason  for  making  steel  in  Great  Britain.  This  last  limita- 
tion may  not  be  palatable,  but  it  is  really  the  crux  of  the  whole 
question,  and  it  seems  to  have  been  overlooked  by  the  British 
geologists  who  have  discussed  the  subject.  People  do  not  make 
iron  out  of  low-grade  ores  simply  to  use  up  the  ores;  and  with  an 
increasing  coke  cost  and  a  narrowing  export  market  it  is  a  very 
serious  question  whether  the  bulk  of  these  British  carbonates  will 
ever  be  used.  The  duration  of  the  British  steel  industry  will  be 
fixed  by  its  coal  supply,  and  not  by  its  supply  of  local  ores;  for 
so  long  as  coke  and  markets  justify  it,  ore  can  be  imported  to 
good  advantage.  If  other  conditions  do  not  justify  the  importa- 
tion of  ore,  they  will  certainly  not  justify  the  use  of  these  hy- 
pothetical reserve  tonnages. 

Statistics  of  Domestic  Ore  Production. — The  following  table, 
taken  from  a  recent  British  Board  of  Trade  report,  will  give  the 
best  idea  of  the  relative  productive  importance  of  the  different 
districts  which  have  been  described.  The  figures  are  in  round 
numbers,  and  quoted  in  long  tons. 

IRON-ORE  PRODUCTION  OF  BRITISH  DISTRICTS,  1882-1911 


Cumber- 

East 
Midlands 

Years 

North 
Lanca- 
shire 

Cleveland 

(Leices- 
tershire, 
Lincoln, 

Staf- 
fordshire 

Wales, 
etc. 

Scotland 

Ire- 
land 

Total 

1882-85   2,755,000   6,267,000   2,811,000    1,881,000  803,000   2,090,000  '137,000  16,744,000 

1886-90   2,569,000   5,405,000   3,005,000    1,341,000341,000    1,226,000   138,000  14,025,000 

1891-95   2,199,000  4,699,000   3,093,000!      926,000  275,000i      785,000     78,000  12,055,000 

1896-00   1,944,000   5,639,000;  4,183,000    1,025,000!  252,000       887,000   101,000  14,031,000 

1901-05    1,549,000   5,570,000   4,556,000 

818,000!  149,000       821,000     93,00013,556,000 

1906-10 
1911 

1,625,000!  6,158,000 
1,712,000   6,050,000 

5,516,000 
5,957,000 

951,000  183,000!      745,000 
926,000:  129,000       689,000 

81,000,15,259,000 
56,00015,519,000 

THE  IRON  ORES  OF  EUROPE 


321 


Nakerlvara 


\ 
Ekstrdmbercf 


t* 

i  Luossa- 
£    ™/* 

Tuolluvara1 
pKIRUNA 


Leppakoski 


Leppa 
I 

I SAUTUS  L. 


Mertainen 

y 


Svappavara 

Leveaniemi 


ILLIN6EN 


Yiipffasry'asko 


6ELL1VARA 


About  ISS  miles  From 
Gellivara  fo  Lulea, 
nearest  shipping  port. 


21 


FIG.  61. — Scandinavian  ore  region.     (Stiitzer.) 


322 


IRON  ORES 


In  addition  to  this  domestic  ore  production  of  about  15  million 
tons  per  annum,  the  imports  of  ore  have  ranged  from  6  to  8 
million  tons  annually  in  recent  years.  Of  these  imports,  about 
two-thirds  are  from  Spain,  the  remainder  being  from  Sweden, 
Norway,  Algeria,  Greece,  Russia,  etc. 

NORWAY,    SWEDEN   AND    FINLAND 

Norway,  Sweden  and  Finland  possess  large  deposits  of  mag- 
netic ore,  which  are  at  present  drawn  upon  chiefly  to  supply  de- 
ficiencies in  the  ore  requirements  of  Great  Britain,  Belgium  and 
some  of  the  German  steel-producing  districts.  The  total  tonnages 
available  are  vast,  the  actual  reserves  in  Norway  and  Sweden  be- 
ing estimated  at  1525  million  tons,  carrying  864  million  tons  of 
metallic  iron;  while  the  potential  reserves  are  still  larger.  In 
some  cases  the  ore  is  fairly  free  from  gangue  as  mined;  in  others, 
as  in  the  Dunderland  deposits,  magnetic  concentration  is  nec- 
essary to  make  a  merchantable  product;  but  in  all  cases  the  grade 
of  the  final  product  is  excellent  as  regards  iron  content. 

The  deposits  of  heaviest  tonnage  are  found  in  the  northern  por- 
tions of  Sweden  and  Norway,  though  less  important  deposits 
occur  in  central  and  southern  Sweden  and  in  northern  Finland. 
Most  of  the  ore  deposits  are  associated  with  rocks  of  igneous 
origin,  and  the  ore  deposits  have  in  many  cases  been  ascribed  to 
magmatic  differentiation  (see  page  101).  There  seems  to  be 
reason  to  believe,  however,  that  they  are,  in  some  regions  at 
least,  either  dikes,  or  replacements  of  limestone  beds  along  or  near 
contact  with  igneous  rocks. 

Some  idea  as  to  actual  shipping  grades  can  be  secured  from  the 
following  analyses,  which  in  most  cases  represent  full  year  ship- 
ments of  certain  grades  from  given  mines. 

ANALYSES   OF   SCANDINAVIAN    MAGNETIC    ORES 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

Iron 

68.56 

66.21 

64.22 

63.73 

61.32 

69.50    67.69 

61.80 

58.68 

62.81     58.07 

Manganese.  . 

0.14 

0.12 

0.13 

0.13 

0.187 

0.46 

0.12 

tr 

0.11 

tr 

0.18 

Phosphorus.  . 

0.02 

0.255 

0.62 

0.86 

1.0 

0.019 

0.258 

2.058 

2.76 

0.965    0.7 

Sulphur  

0.02 

0.03 

0.04 

0.03 

0.12 

0.02 

0.017 

0.05 

0.058 

0.05 

Silica  

1.69 

2.76 

4.05 

2.14 

5.12 

1.69 

2.07 

1.94 

1.90 

3.99 

10.54 

Alumina  

0.44 

1.68 

1.36 

0.8 

1.15 

0.32 

0.61 

0.38 

0.40 

0.95 

0.62 

0  30 

1.48 

2.35 

3.6 

3.13 

0.23 

0.88 

6.75 

8.41 

3.0 

1.93 

Magnesia  

0.48 

1.07 

1.01 

0.9 

0.73 

0.45 

0.46 

0.15 

0.24 



1.81 

Titan,  oxide. 

0.38 

0.25 

0.46 

0.08 

0.18 

0.18 

0.12 

Water  

0.06 

0.11 

0.41 

0.38    0.26 

0.36 

0.82 

0.43 

0.59 

3.21 

0.35 

THE  IRON  ORES  OF  EUROPE  323 

1.  Gellivare,  Class  A,  for  acid  Bessemer  and  open  hearth. 

2.  Gellivare,  Class  C',  for  basic  open  hearth. 

3.  Gellivare,  Class  C",  for  basic  open  hearth  and  foundry  pig. 

4.  Gellivare,  Class  D,  for  basic  pig. 

5.  Grangesberg. 

6.  Kirunavaara,  Class  A,  for  acid  Bessemer  and  open  hearth. 

7.  Kirunavaara,  Class  C',  for  basic  open  hearth. 

8.  Kirunavaara,  Class  D',  for  basic  pig. 

9.  Kirunavaara,  Class  F,  for  basic  pig. 

10.  Malar,  concentrates,  basic  and  foundry  pig. 

11.  Blotberg,  basic  and  foundry  pig. 

The  following  table  giving  the  iron-ore  production  and  exports 
of  Sweden  is  taken  from  a  recent  report  of  the  British  Board  of 
Trade. 

IRON  ORE    OUTPUT  AND  EXPORTS  OF  SWEDEN,  1891-1911 


Year 


Swedish  ore  Iron  ore  Net  available  for 


production                         exports  home  consumption 

1891  971,000        171,000  800,000 

1893  1,460,000        476,000  984,000 

1895  1,874,000        787,000  1,087,000 

1897  2,053,000  1,378,000  675,000 

1899  2,396,000  1,602,000  794,000 

1901  2,750,000  1,733,000  1,017,000 

1903  3,619,000  2,782,000  837,000 

1905  4,295,000  3,264,000  1,031,000 

1907  4,408,000  3,465,000  944,000 

1909  3,824,000  3,153,000  672,000 

1911  6,055,000  5,005,000  1,052,000 


SPAIN    AND    PORTUGAL 

Large  deposits  of  iron  ores  occur  in  Spain,  and  less  well-de- 
veloped and  smaller  deposits  in  Portugal.  The  Spanish  ores  are 
of  industrial  interest  at  present,  not  because  they  serve  as  the 
foundation  of  a  local  iron  and  steel  industry,, but  because  they 
are  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  supply  for  the  British  Bessemer 
demands. 

Of  the  Spanish  ore  deposits,  those  which  were  originally  largest 
are  the  group  located  near  Bilbao  in  the  Province  of  Biscay  (Viz- 
caya.)  These  have  been  drawn  on  heavily  during  the  past  quarter 
century,  and  of  their  original  tonnage  (estimated  at  some  two 
hundred  million  tons)  almost  three-fourths  have  been  mined. 
The  ores  consist  of  hematite  and  carbonate,  are  associated  with 


324 


IRON  ORES 


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«  Isls'll  §1 

Islllllsl 

Cretaceous  limestones,  and  prob- 
ably originated  by  replacement  of 
portions  of  these  limestones. 

In  the  Province  of  Lugo  are  a 
series  of  ore-bodies,  mostly  brown 
hematite  though  other  ores  occur, 
associated  with  schists  and  other 
metamorphosed  rocks  of  pre-Cam- 
brian  and  Cambrian  age.  Many 
of  these  are  relatively  low  grade, 
but  the  total  reserve  amounts  to 
a  considerable  tonnage. 

The  Province  of  Lon  contains 
one  large  group  of  deposits,  and 
a  number  less  important,  the  whole 
aggregating  some  one  hundred  mil- 
lion tons  of  high-grade  ore  and 
another  equal  quantity  of  low- 
grade  material.  The  high-grade 
ores,  near  Astorga,  are  carbonates, 
weathered  near  the  surface  into 
brown  hematites;  and  are  associ- 
ated with  Silurian  schists  in  bed- 
like  deposits. 

Oviedo  Province  also  contains  a 
considerable  reserve  tonnage  of 
bedded  ores  associated  with  Devo- 
nian rocks;  and  the  provinces  of 
Huelva,  Sevilla,  Almeria,  Santan- 
der,  Saragossa,  Teruel  and  Guada- 
lajara possess  more  or  less  impor- 
tant ore-bodies. 

1.  Santander:  granular  washed  ore. 
2.  Santander:  fines.  3.  Bilbao:  rubio. 
4.  Bilbao:  rubio.  5.  Bilbao:  calcined 
spathic  ore.  6.  Malaga.  7.  Sevilla. 
8.  Almeria;  9.  Cuevas  Negras.  10. 
Purias.  11.  Aguilas.  12.  Porman. 

The  following  data  on  the  iron- 
ore  production  and  exports  of 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  EUROPE 


325 


Spain  are  taken  from  a  recent  report  of  the  British  Board  of 
Trade. 

IRON-ORE  PRODUCTION  AND  EXPORTS  OF  SPAIN,  1891-1911 


Year 

1891 
1893 
1895 
1897 
1899 
1901 
1903 
1905 
1907 
1909 
1911 


Spanish  ore 
output 

5,040,000 
5,362,000 
5,426,000 
7,301,000 
9,247,000 
7,779,000 
8,171,000 
8,931,000 
9,737,000 
8,645,000 


Iron  ore 
exports 

4,274,000 
4,708,000 
5,092,000 
6,774,000 
8,475,000 
6,783,000 
7,568,000 
8,452,000 
8,497,000 
8,048,000 
7,165,000 


Net  available  for 
home  consumption 

766,000 
654,000 
334,000 
527,000 
772,000 
996,000 
603,000 
479,000 
1,240,000 
597,000 


Tr/arss/'c 

Limestone 

Upper  Guadix  Formation 

(Miocene) 


»* 


FIG.  62. — Replacement  deposits,  Spain.  (Hobbs.) 
RUSSIA 

European  Russia  contains  a  large  tonnage  of  iron  ores,  but  the 
distribution  of  much  of  the  total  reserve  is  such  that  no  immediate 
development  can  be  expected  commensurate  with  the  ore  avail- 
able. This  is  brought  out  best,  perhaps,  by  the  following  table, 
the  data  for  which  have  been  taken  from  the  report  on  Russian 
ores  by  Bogdanowitsch1  and  rearranged  to  serve  better  the  pur- 
poses of  the  present  publication.  The  table  contains  data  on 
the  total  ore  reserves  of  the  five  principal  Russian  ore  districts, 
the  total  metallic  iron  content  of  these  reserves,  and  the  amount 
of  ore  mined  in  each  district  during  1900  and  1906  respectively. 
This  last  item  will  give  some  idea  of  the  present  commercial 
development  of  the  various  districts. 

1  Bogdanowitsch,  K.  Iron  Ores  of  Russia.  In  Iron-ore  Resources  of 
the  World,  Stockholm,  1910.  vol.  1,  pp.  363-544. 


326 


IRON  ORES 


ORE  RESERVES,  AND  PRODUCTION  OF  EUROPEAN  RUSSIA 


Total  ore  reserves,  metric  tons 

Ore  mined,  metric  tons 

Iron-ore  tonnage 

Meta'lic  iron 
contained 

1900 

1906 

Southern  Russia  
Ural  district  .... 

536,000,000 
281,930,345 
300,000,000 
789,000,000 
14,000,000 

233,320,000 
135,355,696 
120,000,000 
315,600,000 
8,300,000 

3,443,000 
1,660,632 
485,729 
510,560 
3,533 

3,656,051 
1,242,000 
300,905 
148,638 
1,900 

Poland  and  northern  .  . 
Central  Russia  
Caucasus  .  .  . 

1,920,930,345 

812,575,696 

6,103,454 

5,349,494 

On  their  face  the  ore  reserves  above  noted  seem  satisfactory 
enough,  and  until  the  data  are  examined  more  critically  it  is 
difficult  to  explain  why  the  relatively  large  finishing  capacity 
of  the  Moscow  and  other  central  Russian  districts  is  so  far  out 
of  line  with  the  comparatively  small  ore  production  of  that 
area.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  large  total  ore  reserves 
credited  to  central  Russia  are  in  reality  less  important  than  they 
seem  owing  both  to  grade  of  ore  and  thinness  of  the  ore-bodies. 
From  an  international  viewpoint,  the  ore  deposits  of  southern 
Russia  are  the  ones  which  require  most  attention;  for  these  are 
so  located  as  to  be  of  importance  to  foreign  competitors,  while 
the  total  reserve  tonnage  is  high,  and  the  grade  of  much  of  the 
ore  is  excellent. 

The  ore  reserves  of  South  Russia  chiefly  ores  of  two  types, 
which  have  also  a  different  geographic  distribution.  These  are: 

(a)  Hematites  occurring  associated  with  metamorphic  schists 
in  the  region  of  Kriwoj  Rog,  in  the  Governments  of  Ekaterinoslav 
and  Cherson.     These  ores  range  from  50  to  70  percent  metallic 
iron,  though  at  present  the  lower  grades  are  not  shipped;  from 
0.01  to  0.06  phosphoric  acid;  2  to  11  percent  silica;  0.7  to  3.5 
percent  alumina;  traces  only  of  sulphur;  ordinarily  less  than  1 
percent    of   lime    and    magnesia    together;    and    0.02    to    0.08 
manganese.     They  are  now  extensively  worked,  and  it  is  estimated 
by  Bogdanowitch  that  some  86  million  tons  of  commercial  ore  still 
exist,  of  which  53  million  tons  will  grade  over  62  percent  iron. 

(b)  In  the  Kertsch  peninsula  series  of  lower-grade  ores  occur, 
but  their  relatively  low  iron  is  made  up  partly  by  advantages  of 
location   and   by  the    large   tonnages   available — estimated   at 
some  450  million  tons.     The  ores  are  brown  hematites  asso- 
ciated with  Pliocene  beds;  and  range  from  34  to  42  in  iron;  1 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  EUROPE  327 

to  8  percent  manganese;  1.5  to  2.7  phosphorus;  and  14  to  17 
silica. 

The  analyses  below  represent   actual  shipments  from  mines 
in  the  Kriwoj  Rog  district  noted  above. 

ANALYSES  OF  IRON  ORES,  RUSSIA 

1  2 

Iron 67.00  65.88 

Manganese n.d.      0 . 08 

Phosphorus 0.015     0.02 

Sulphur 0.018     0.026 

Silica 2.88       2.96 

Alumina 0 . 64       1 . 43 

Lime n.d.        1 . 46 

Magnesia tr.         0 . 39 

Water 2.70       3.12 

1.  Kolaczewsky     2.  Nicolaieff. 

The  following  summary  of  the  general  Russian  ore  situation  is 
taken  directly  from  a  recent  report  of  the  British  Board  of  Trade. 

IRON-ORE  PRODUCTION,  ETC.,  OF  RUSSIA,  1891-1911 

Year  Russian  ore  Exports  Imports 

output  of  ore  of  ore 

1891  1,869,000  8,000  12,000 

1893  2,002,000  11,000  26,000 

1895  2,704,000  17,000  22,000 

1897  3,745,000  15,000  33,000 

1899  5,598,000  12,000  44,000 

1901  4,577,000  20,000  71,000 

1903  4,071,000  305,000  81,000 

1905  4,799,000  218,000  77,000 

1907  5,268,000  882,000  85,000 

1909  5,085,000  508,000  81,000 

1911  6,832,000  869,000  106,000 


AUSTRIA,    HUNGARY   AND   BOSNIA 

In  taking  up  the  Austrian  Empire,  we  are  dealing  with  a  far  less 
important  possible  source  of  iron  ores  than  in  the  countries  so  far 
discussed.  Not  only  is  the  total  reserve  tonnage  relatively  small, 
but  other  manufacturing  conditions  seem  to  indicate  that  Austro- 
Hungary  has  about  reached  its  maximum  importance  from  an 
international  viewpoint,  so  far  as  iron  and  steel  production  are 
concerned.  Individual  plants  may  increase  in  size  and  output, 


328  IRON  ORES 

but  hardly  in  the  same  ratio  as  those  of  France,  Germany  or 
Russia. 

Of  all  the  iron-ore  deposits  in  Austria,  Hungary  and  Bosnia, 
only  two  districts  are  of  serious  international  importance.  These 
are  respectively  Bohemia  and  Styria,  each  of  which  may  contain 
several  hundred  million  tons  of  workable  ore.  The  chief  Styrian 
ores  are  carbonates,  occurring  in  large  tonnages,  but  of  course 
relatively  low  grade.  The  Bohemian  ores  include  contact 
deposits  of  hematite,  and  also  large  reserves  of  purely  sedimen- 
tary ores  of  lower  grade.  These  last  include  both  oolitic  hema- 
tites and  chamoisite. 

As  noted  in  an  earlier  chapter  (p.  26)  the  chamoisite  ores  are 
hydrous  iron  silicates,  and  since  ores  of  this  type  are  rarely  used 
it  is  of  interest  to  quote  several  analyses  of  crude  and  roasted 
chamoisite  from  Uhlig's  report  on  Austrian  iron  ores; 

ANALYSES  OF  IRON  SILICATE  ORES,  AUSTRIA 

1                la  2                2a 

Metallic  iron 35.54  44.30  32.78  41.79 

Manganese 0 . 05  0 . 06  0 . 05  0 . 03 

Phos.  pentoxide 2.05  2.55  1.52  2.13 

Sulphur 0.27  0.35  0.20 

Silica 12.52  15.61  13.38  21.56 

Alumina 7.75  9.66  13.12  13.17 

Lime 3.35  4.17  3.42  1.76 

Magnesia 2.28  2.84  2.08  1.28 

Water,  etc 19.78  18.92  0.54 

1,  2.    Crude  Ore.        la,  2a.     Roasted  Ore. 

It  can  be  seen,  of  course,  that  the  two  sets  of  analyses  do  not 
exactly  correspond,  but  they  are  of  value  as  average  results 
nevertheless. 

IRON-ORE  PRODUCTION,  ETC.,  OF  AUSTRO-HUNGARY,  1891-1911 

Year  Austrian  ore  Iron  ore  Iron  ore 

output  exports  imports 

1891  2,073,000  87,000  67,000 

1893  2,052,000  104,000  72,000 

1895  2,302,000  162,000  116,000 

1897  2,986,000  244,000  133,000 

1899  3,240,000  322,000  209,000 

1901  3,464,000  226,000  215,000 

1903  3,104,000  249,000  215,000 

1905  3,518,000  318,000  224,000 

1907  4,138,000  217,000  384,000 

1909  4,384,000  176,000  368,000 

1911  4,597,000  112,000  462,000 


THE  IRON  ORES  OF  EUROPE  329 

The  proceeding  data  on  the  iron-ore  production,  exports  and 
imports  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Empire  are  taken  from  a 
recent  British  Board  of  Trade  report. 

ITALY,    GREECE   AND   THE   BALKAN   REGION 

The  European  countries  which  remain  to  be  mentioned  are  not 
well  supplied  with  iron  ores,  and  are  probably  of  more  importance 
now  than  they  are  likely  to  be  in  the  future.  Italy  has  a  single 
large  mine  group,  on  the  island  of  Elba,  which  still  contains  a 
moderate  reserve  of  high-grade  ore.  The  Balkan  countries  and 
Turkey  have  not,  so  far  as  known,  ore  reserves  of  an  amount 
which  is  likely  to  make  them  of  international  importance.  Greece, 
however,  has  a  series  of  well  located  deposits  which  are  now  mined 
on  a  moderate  scale  for  export.  The  ores  grade  about  50  per- 
cent iron,  but  like  the  Cuban  brown  ores  carry  notable  percent- 
ages of  chromium  and  nickel.  This  gives  them  special  value  for 
a  few  purposes,  but  limits  their  general  use. 

ANALYSES  OF  IRON  ORES,  GREECE 

123 

Iron 50.25      47.16  50.46 

Manganese 2.36        0.31  0.19 

Chromium n.  d.        2.31  2.27 

Nickel n.  d.        n.d.  0.59 

Phosphorus 0.02        0.02  0.006 

Sulphur 0.015      0.04  0.029 

Silica 2.29        7.18  8.37 

Alumina n.d.        9.60  7.54 

Lime 7.60        2.30  0.69 

Magnesia 0.50        1.49  1.91 

Water 8.15        3.40  n.d. 

1.  Gramatico.     2.  Thebes.  3.  Tragana. 

BELGIUM 

Though  a  large  producer  of  steel,  Belgium  is  now  primarily 
an  ore-importing  country,  drawing  its  main  supplies  from  Spain, 
Sweden  and  Germany.  It  still  contains  ore  deposits  of  several 
types,  but  only  one  of  these  seems  to  give  promise  of  being  of 
more  than  temporary  importance  to  the  Belgium  iron  industry. 
This  type  includes  sedimentary  deposits  of  hematite,  occurring 
as  beds  in  Devonian  rocks.  The  grade  is  relatively  low,  but  the 
beds  are  of  workable  thickness  over  considerable  areas,  so  that 
the  total  available  tonnage  is  of  fair  amount. 


CHAPTER  XXV 
ASIA,  AFRICA  AND  AUSTRALIA 

In  taking  up  the  three  continents  now  to  be  discussed — Asia, 
Africa  and  Australia — the.  treatment  of  their  iron  resources  can 
be  only  tentative.  In  the  first  place,  there  are  still  vast  gaps  in 
our  knowledge  concerning  the  actual  occurrence  of  iron  ores  in 
these  continents;  large  areas  are  still  practically  unknown,  and 
it  is  not  only  possible  but  probable  that  some  of  these  unknown 
areas  may  finally  be  found  to  contain  very  important  ore  deposits. 
But  these  defects  in  geological  knowledge  are  unimportant  com- 
pared with  the  uncertainty  regarding  the  progress  of  general 
development  on  at  least  two  of  the  continents.  For,  as  has  been 
suggested  at  various  points  in  preceding  chapters,  the  mere  oc- 
currence of  iron  ore  does  not  of  itself  imply  that  important  de- 
velopment is  bound  to  occur.  Before  we  can  have  any  definite 
idea  as  to  the  international  importance  of  a  newly  discovered 
ore-body,  we  must  have  a  fair  idea  as  to  the  fuel,  market,  labor 
and  transportation  conditions  which  exist  now  at  that  point, 
or  which  are  likely  to  exist  in  the  near  future. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  obvious  that  a  discussion  of 
the  iron-ore  resources  and  possibilities  of  Asia,  Africa  and 
Australia  must  of  necessity  be  colored  largely  by  the  writer's 
ideas  concerning  the  possibilities  of  general  development  in  those 
regions.  It  would  of  course  be  possible  to  simply  present  a 
catalogue  of  known  iron-ore  localities;  and  perhaps  this  easy  way 
out  of  the  difficulty  might  be  justified.  In  the  present  chapter, 
however,  I  have  attempted  to  do  something  more  than  this, 
since  the  possible  gain  to  the  reader  seems  to  more  than  balance 
the  risk  of  failure.  In  place  of  presenting  all  available  facts 
without  comment,  only  such  facts  have  been  presented  as  seem 
to  be  of  wide  importance;  and  these  facts  are  grouped  in  such  a 
way  as  to  suggest  their  probable  relative  effect  upon  the  future 
course  of  the  world's  iron  industry.  The  statements  made  are 
based  upon  good  authorities;  my  interpretation  of  their  relative 

330 


ASIA,  AFRICA  AND  AUSTRALIA  331 

importance  and  international  bearings  may  be  faulty;  the  re- 
sulting discussion,  at  any  rate,  is  presented  as  the  first  attempt 
to  reach  general  conclusions  on  these  important  points. 

ASIA 

1.  China,  Corea  and  Japan. — These  three  politically  distinct 
areas  are  here  grouped  together  since  their  development  seems 
likely  to  take  the  same  course,  and  to  be  open  to  influence  by 
the  same  possible  changes  in  political  and  economic  conditions. 

In  attempting  to  discuss  the  iron-ore  resources  or  the  iron- 
making  possibilities  of  China,  a  lack  of  definite  information  re- 
garding many  important  points  must  be  taken  for  granted.  As 
regards  either  iron  or  coal  supplies  we  have  to  deal  with  numerous 
detached  statements  in  the  records  of  many  travelers,  with 
a  few  more  definite  and  specific  accounts  of  certain  districts  by 
engineers  or  geologists,  and  with  fairly  definite  data  concern- 
ing the  only  modern  steel  plant  in  China.  The  latter,  operated 
by  Japanese  capital,  has  of  course  attracted  the  attention  of 
political  and  commercial  competitors;  and  a  fairly  close  esti- 
mate of  its  manufacturing  possibilities  can  be  arrived  at.  But 
with  regard  to  the  possibilities  of  coal  and  iron  development  in 
other  areas,  there  is  ample  room  for  serious  errors  in  any  attempt 
to  summarize  the  situation  and  its  probable  line  of  progress. 

Native  iron  manufacture  has  of  course  gone  on  in  a  small  way 
for  many  tens  of  centuries;  but  this  does  not  help  much  in  at- 
tempting to  locate  the  possibilities  for  modern  large-scale  pro- 
duction. Read  notes  many  localities  which  seem  to  give  promise 
of  future  importance,  ranging  from  near  Mukden  in  the  north 
to  Canton  in  the  south;  and  some  of  the  other  papers  available 
give  details  regarding  specific  districts.  His  final  conclusion 
is  that  the  chief  iron  development  is  likely  to  takefplace  in 
the  Yang-Tze  valley,  where  good  ore  supplies  and  adequate  water 
transportation  to  markets  are  available.  The  one  modern  plant 
of  China  is  already  located  in  this  area,  at  Hanyang  opposite 
Hankow  in  Hu-Pei  province. 

The  ore  used  at  the  Hanyang  furnaces  is  mined  at  Ta-Yeh, 
50  miles  southeast  of  the  plant.  Read  states  that  this  ore  is 
a  hematite,  occurring  in  large  bodies  along  the  contact  between 
syenite  and  a  Devonian  or  Carboniferous  limestone.  The  ores 
grade  between  the  following  limits:  60  to  62  percent  iron;  0.05 


332  IRON  ORES 

to  0.25  percent  phosphorus;  0.05  to  0.12  sulphur;  3  to  5  percent 
silica;  1  to  2  percent  alumina;  0.2  to  0.4  percent  magnanese;  and 
0.05  to  0.25  percent  copper.  The  ore-bodies  now  worked  are 
credited  with  containing  about  100  million  tons  of  commercial 
ore.  The  coke  used  is  from  Ping  Hsiang,  300  miles  south  of  the 
furnaces;  and  manganese  ore  is  obtained  in  the  same  locality 
as  the  coal. 

Read's  figures  on  costs  at  Hanyang  are  illuminating,  and  will 
justify  quotation. 

"The  cost  of  production  of  iron  ore  in  the  open-cut  workings 
at  Ta-Yeh  is  approximately  as  follows: 

Mexican 
per  ton. 

Stripping. $0.08 

Mining 0.18 

Tramming 0.03 

Powder,  steel,  etc 0.015 

Superintendence 0 . 06 

Loading,  freight  to  Hanyang,  etc.  .  .     0 . 30 

This  would  make  the  probable  cost  of  the  ore  delivered  at  the 
blast  furnace  a  little  under  $1.00  Mexican  per  ton.  Ordinary 
unskilled  laborers  receive  $0.08  to  $0.12  gold  per  day.  Skilled 
labor  receives  $10  to  $50  Mexican  per  month;  and  the  efficiency 
of  this  labor  is  remarkably  high." 

As  to  the  iron  ores  of  Japan,  they  are  widely  distributed,  and 
the  total  available  tonnage  is  fairly  large,  though  no  single  very 
large  deposits  are  known  to  exist.  Inouye  states  that  the  most 
important  ore-bodies  are  contact  deposits  associated  chiefly  with 
Paleozoic  limestones  near  their  contact  with  igneous  rocks.  At 
the  largest  of  these  deposits,  that  of  Kamaishi,  the  ore  is  a  mag- 
netite ranging  from  55  to  60  percent  in  metallic  iron,  and  usually 
low  in  phosphorus.  In  other  deposits  the  ores  are  hematites 
°f  substantially  similar  grade.  Five  deposits  of  various  types 
are  now  producers;  the  magnetite  deposits  of  Kamaishi,  Naka- 
kosaka  and  Hitokabe,  the  hematite  of  Sennin,  and  the  iron  sands 
of  Chugoku.  Inouye  estimates  the  reserve  tonnage  in  the  best 
known  of  these  deposits  at  a  total  of  about  twenty  million  tons; 
but  the  unexplored  reserves  are  possibly  far  larger. 

Inouye  states  that  the  Japanese  iron  industry  dates  back  to  the 
seventh  century,  and  that  in  its  earliest  form  it  was  based  on  the 


ASIA,  AFRICA  AND  AUSTRALIA  333 

use  of  iron  sands  as  ores.  The  Imperial  Iron  Works,  founded  in 
1896  and  completed  in  1901,  has  placed  the  industry  on  a  modern 
footing.  At  these  works  about  200,000  tons  of  Japanese,  Corean 
and  Chinese  ores  are  smelted  yearly,  yielding  about  100,000  tons 
of  pig  iron,  all  of  which  (and  more)  is  used  in  the  steel  plant.  In 
addition,  some  40  or  50  thousand  tons  of  pig  are  made  at  smaller 
furnace  plants;  and  60  thousand  tons  or  more  are  annually  im- 
ported. These  figures  are  noted  here,  for  in  most  statistical 
summaries  the  entire  production  of  the  Imperial  works  seems  to  be 
overlooked,  so  that  we  are  in  danger  of  crediting  Japan  with  much 
less  iron  and  steel  making  capacity  than  she  actually  possesses. 

2.  British  India. — Three  main  types  of  iron-ore  deposits  seem 
to  offer  possibilities  in  the  way  of  successful  ore  mining  and  iron 
manufacture  in  British  India,  though  these  three  types  differ 
greatly  in  their  adaptability  to  these  purposes.  The  types  noted 
are  respectively : 

a.  Hematite   and   magnetite   deposits,   associated   with   pre- 
Cambrian  rocks,  and  occurring  in  Madras,  Bengal  and  central 
India.     These  ores  are  in  places  merely  disseminated  through 
masses  of  igneous  or  metamorphic  rock,  and  will  require  con- 
centration to  be  serviceable.     But  at  other  points  we  have  to 
deal  with  deposits  which,  because  of  either  original  greater  rich- 
ness or  secondary  concentration,  show  definite  ore-bodies  con- 
taining high-grade  ore.     Two  of  these  richer  fields  have  attracted 
attention  recently,  as  being  the  scene  of  the  operations  of  the 
Tata  Steel  Company,  in  which  American  engineers  are  interested. 
These  two  areas  are  located  respectively  in  Orissa  (Bengal)  and 
near  Raipur  (Central  Provinces).     The  former  field  is  the  one 
which  is  expected  to  furnish  the  immediate  supply  for  the  Tata 
plant,  which  is  located  near  Kalimati,  45  miles  from  the  ores  and 
150  miles  from  Calcutta.     Both  the  Orissa  and  Raipur  ores  are 
chiefly  hematite,  and  in  each  case  several  hundred  million  tons 
of  ore  are  supposed  to  exist.     The  Orissa  ores  carry  64  to  69  per- 
cent iron,  0.048  to  0.135  phosphorus,  0.021  to  0.036  sulphur  and 
1.64  to  4.08  silica. 

b.  Carbonate  ores  in  the  Coal  Measures  of  Bengal  have  been 
used  by  the  natives  and  by  the  Barakar  iron  works  for  many  years 
as  a  source  of  iron.     The  Barakar  plant  formerly  obtained  its 
entire  supply  from  nodular  carbonates  occurring  in  shales  in  the 
Raniganj  coal  field;  but  recently  magnetite  and  hematite  ores 


334  IRON  ORES 

from  near  Kalimati  have  been  used  at  the  three  Barakar  furnaces. 
The  carbonate  ores  analyzed  43.43  percent  iron,  16.49  percent 
silica,  2.15  percent  manganese  and  0.86  percent  phosphorus. 
Approximately  100,000  tons  per  year  of  ore  are  used,  on  the 
average,  at  this  plant,  its  output  of  pig  metal  ranging  not  far 
from  40,000  tons  per  year. 

c.  Residual  brown  ores,  often  highly  aluminous,  occur  in 
quantity  in  the  laterite  formation  in  the  presidencies  of  Madras, 
Bengal  and  Bombay.  Much  of  these  ores  are  too  low  grade,  or 
too  aluminous,  to  be  worthy  of  consideration  either  now  or  in 
the  near  future;  but  in  places  analyses  are  reported  which  in- 
dicate ores  at  least  as  good  as  those  mined  in  Cuba  from  similar 
deposits. 

From  this  brief  outline  it  can  be  seen  that  the  ore  resources  of 
British  India  are  still  far  from  being  known  definitely.  Holland, 
in  his  summary,  cautions  against  a  too-enthusiastic  view  of  the 
matter,  pointing  out  that  the  number  of  small  native  bloomaries 
gives  no  indication  as  to  the  existence  of  really  heavy  reserves 
from  a  modern  viewpoint.  But,  as  against  this,  we  must  con- 
sider that  within  the  past  ten  years  Bose  discovered  and  described 
two  entirely  new  ore  fields;  and  that  when  the  engineers  for  the 
Tata  plant  tested  these  fields,  they  reported  an  aggregate  reserve 
of  some  400  million  tons  of  ore,  grading  over  60  percent  iron. 
Unless  we  are  willing  to  assume  that,  by  sheer  good  fortune,  the 
only  good  ores  in  India  were  thus  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Tata 
company,  we  must  be  prepared  to  expect  heavy  tonnages  to  be 
turned  up  in  other  parts  of  a  country  which  can  produce  two  such 
excellent  ore  fields.  On  this  account  I  am  inclined  to  credit  India 
with  far  heavier  possible  reserves  than  are  considered  probable 
by  the  Estimates  of  the  Indian  Geological  Survey. 

As  to  the  extent  to  which  these  resources  are  likely  to  be  de- 
veloped, that  is  another  question.  There  are  no  foreign  furnaces 
so  located  that  they  can  draw  upon  India  for  a  portion  of  their 
ore  supply,  so  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  all  of  the  mining 
development  will  be  with  the  idea  of  using  the  ore  in  Indian  iron 
works.  The  coal  and  labor  supplies  seem  to  be  ample  to  permit 
such  local  development;  and  the  markets  reachable  should  be 
sufficient  to  take  a  far  heavier  tonnage  of  iron  and  steel  than  are 
now  produced  in  India.  The  matter  seems  to  rest  indeed 
largely  in  the  hands  of  the  Government;  and  the  manufacturing 


ASIA,  AFRICA  AND  AUSTRALIA  335 

development  of  India  may  depend  almost  entirely  upon  larger 
questions  of  political  and  economic  policy. 

AFRICA 

Our  knowledge  of  the  iron-ore  resources  of  the  African  con- 
tinent is  necessarily  still  very  indefinite,  and  a  mere  summary  of 
the  scattered  data  would  be  of  little  real  service  to  our  present 
work,  for  it  would  be  difficult  to  put  a  catalogue  list  of  African  ore 
deposits  into  such  form  that  any  valuable  conclusions  could  be 
drawn  from  it.  On  the  other  hand,  certain  general  conclusions 
seem  to  be  justified,  in  the  light  of  our  present  knowledge.  These 
conclusions  are  of  course  matters  of  purely  personal  judgment, 
and  it  may  turn  out  that  they  are  erroneous;  but  they  are  offered 
now  as  representing,  in  the  opinion  of  the  writer,  the  really 
important  facts  that  seem  to  underlie  the  mass  of  scattered 
details  which  are  now  available.  They  may  be  summarized 
as  follows : 

a.  Large  areas  of  the  African  continent,  including  much  of 
the  west  coast,  have  so  far  either  failed  to  show  iron  deposits, 
or    are    so    handicapped    by    climatic   conditions  that   serious 
development  would  be  doubtful,  even  if  iron  ores  are  found. 

b.  The  north  coast  region,  from  Morocco  to  Tripoli,  contains 
a  series  of  more  or  less  important  iron-ore  deposits.     These  are 
now   partly    developed,    and   the   undeveloped   areas   will    un- 
doubtedly soon  be  opened  up.     But  the  deposits  of  this  region 
will  serve  as  a  source  of  supply  for  European  furnaces,  rather 
than  as  a  basis  for  the  growth  of  a  local  iron  industry. 

c.  In  eastern  and   southeastern  Africa  an  entirely  different 
state  of  things  exists.     Here  we  have  no  deposits  now  developed, 
and  we  have  no  really  definite  data  respecting  the  undeveloped 
deposits.     But  throughout  a  large  area  we  do  have  notes  on  the 
occurrence  of  iron  ores  of  a  type  which  may  readily  become  im- 
portant, and  so  far  as  can  be  judged  now,  may  perhaps  become 
more  important  than  any  of  the  other  African  fields.     This  region 
is  suitable  for  white  habitation  and  labor  in   most  parts,    and 
coal  fields  occur  at  various  points  in  it.     The  data  are  plainly 
insufficient  for  final  conclusions;  but  they  obviously  point  toward 
the  possibility  that  we  are  dealing  here  with  a  region  which  may 
become  the  location  of  an  important  iron  production. 

For  our  present  purposes  we  may  entirely  disregard  the  areas 


336  IRON  ORES 

which  seem  unlikely,  for  any  reason,  to  become  of  serious  inter- 
national importance,  and  concentrate  attention  upon  the  two 
regions  which  do  give  promise. 

1.  The  North  African  Coast  Region. — For  the  four  divisions 
making  up  this  region,  there  are  available  very  complete  data 
on  the  iron  ores  of  Algeria,  fairly  full  data  on  Tunis,  and  prac- 
tically nothing  on  Morocco  and  Tripoli.  It  is  known  that  the 
iron-ore  deposits  of  Morocco  have  been  examined  by  German 
and  French  engineers,  but  nothing  definite  on  the  result  of  these 
explorations  has  been  published.  The  following  summary  must 
of  necessity,  therefore,  relate  almost  entirely  to  conditions  in 
Algeria,  but  the  practical  certainty  that  heavy  tonnages  exist  in 
the  other  states  must  not  be  overlooked. 

For  a  number  of  years  past  heavy  tonnages  have  been  shipped 
from  Algerian  mines  to  European  furnaces,  and  in  later  years 
Tunis  has  added  to  these  shipments,  which  now  average  close 
to  one  million  tons  a  year.  All  of  this  ore  is  a  rather  high-grade 
hematite,  ranging  from  50  to  60  percent  iron,  and  low  in  phos- 
phorus. The  ore-bodies  are  lenticular  in  shape,  associated  with 
schists  and  limestones,  and  probably  represent  replacements  of 
the  latter.  Similar  deposits  occur  in  Tunis,  and  Nicou  estimates 
the  total  reserve  tonnage  of  these  two  French  colonies  at  from 
100  to  150  million  tons  of  commercial  ore. 

ANALYSES  OF  IRON  ORES,  ALGIERS 

1              2  3  45 

Iron 57.10  43.65  52.62  49.70  50.42 

Manganese 1.2  1.1  4.88  1.30  1.39 

Phosphorus 0.009  0.02  0.01  0.035  0.019 

Sulphur 0.017  0.04  0.045  0.08  0.028 

Silica 3.64  12.77  4.64  5.45  4.74 

Alumina 0.49  n.d.  0.74  n.d.  n.d. 

Lime 1.22  2.91  0.12  9.9  7.49 

Magnesia 0.24  0.54  1.14  0.43  0.42 

Water 8.65  6.18  7.04  9.75  9.08 

1.  Timezrit.    2.  Oued-Djer.   3.  Bar-el-Maden-   4.  Temoulga.   5.  Zaccar. 

2.  Eastern  and  southeastern  Africa  seems  to  contain,  in  most 
of  the  provinces  and  colonies,  iron  deposits  of  more  or  less  im- 
portance; and  in  some  of  the  areas  these  appear  to  be  of  great 
promise.     For    convenience   the   region   will   be   taken   up   by 
administrative  divisions,  from  north  to  south. 

In  Egypt  and  the  Soudan  only  scattered  records  as  to  iron  de- 


ASIA,  AFRICA  AND  AUSTRALIA  337 

posits  are  available.  These  appear  to  indicate  the  presence  of 
workable  brown  hematites  in  Darfur  and  Kordofan;  and  of  widely 
distributed  deposits  of  oolitic  ores  associated  with  a  series  of 
sandstones.  No  really  definite  data  as  to  possible  tonnages  or 
working  conditions  seem  to  be  available,  but  analyses  of  various 
samples  are  fair. 

Magnetites  and  other  ores  are  reported  from  Uganda,  British 
Somaliland,  and  the  East  Africa  Protectorate,  the  latter  province 
being  apparently  of  most  promise  in  this  regard.  Magnetite  and 
hematite  ore-bodies  are  also  known  to  occur  in  German  East 
Africa,  and  in  Nyasaland.  The  Congo  also  reports  considerable 
ore  tonnages. 

In  the  three  divisions  still  to  be  mentioned — Rhodesia,  the 
Transvaal  and  Cape  Colony — the  matter  assumes  a  more  definite 
and  important  aspect.  Many  types  of  ore  exist  here,  and  some 
of  these  may  attain  commercial  importance.  Mennell  estimates 
for  example,  that  there  are  several  thousand  million  tons  of 
lateritic  ores  in  Rhodesia  alone — brown  ores  much  like  those  of 
Cuba,  frequently  high  in  alumina  and  always  high  in  silica — 
but  the  most  promising  type  is  a  hematite  associated  with  pre- 
Cambrian  rocks,  like  the  Lake  Superior  and  Brazilian  deposits. 
Mennell  considers  this  last  type  of  deposit  to  be,  in  Rhodesia, 
of  high  possible  economic  importance.  Similar  deposits  occur 
in  corresponding  rocks  in  the  Transvaal,  but  are  not  supposed 
there  to  be  workable.  Contact  deposits  of  later  age  are,  however, 
promising  at  various  localities  in  the  Transvaal. 

The  entire  matter  as  to  the  possible  economic  importance  of 
these  east  African  deposits  must  be  left  unsettled  until  they  are 
examined  by  some  one  acquainted  with  iron  mining  elsewhere. 
As  it  stands  now  the  data  are  only  sufficient  to  justify  the  sug- 
gestion that  here  is  very  possibly  one  of  the  large  ore  fields  of  the 
world.  But  careful  examination  may  show  that  this  is  an 
error. 

AUSTRALIA 

Though  considerable  information  is  available  concerning  the 
iron-ore  deposits  of  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  much  of  it  is 
curiously  indefinite  and  amateurish  in  its  form  of  statement,  and 
apparently  prepared  by  geologists  who  have  had  little  or  no 
acquaintance  with  iron-ore  mining  in  developed  districts.  There 

is,  therefore,  a  distinct  lack  of  comparative  value  in  most  of  the 
22 


338 


IRON  ORES 


data  obtainable.  The  brief  summary  which  follows  must  be  read 
with  this  fact  in  mind. 

New  Zealand  contains  the  largest  deposits  at  present  known, 
those  of  Parapara,  which  are  brown  ores  associated  with  and 
probably  replacing,  crystalline  limestones  of  Ordovician  age. 
Magnetite  beach  sands  also  occur,  but  with  high  titanium 
content. 

New  South  Wales  ranks  next  in  developed  iron-ore  tonnage,  and 
because  cf  its  coal  resources,  these  ores  attain  considerable  in- 
dustrial importance.  Those  of  the  Cadia  field  are  in  largest 
quantity. 

Tasmania  contains  one  promising  ore  field,  that  of  the  Blythe 
River  district,  where  hematites  are  associated  with  Ordovician 
rocks. 

Victoria,  Queensland,  West  Australia  and  South  Australia  con- 
tain scattered  deposits,  some  of  fairly  large  size,  but  few  so  lo- 
cated as  to  give  much  promise  of  attaining  industrial  importance 
in  the  near  future.  Some  of  the  largest,  moreover,  seem  from  the 
data  available  to  be  deposits  of  contact  origin,  and  therefore  open 
to  suspicion  as  to  their  composition  in  depth. 

ANALYSES  OF  IRON  ORES,  AUSTRALIA  AND  NEW  ZEALAND 
State  Locality  Metric     gilica      Phos-^      gulphur   Water 

West  Australia.     Wilgi  Mia 63.87     2.48     0.090  0.033  2.41 

West  Australia.     Wilgi  Mia 


64.36     1.38     0.052  0.023  1.17 


South  Australia. 
South  Australia. 
South  Australia. 
South  Australia. 

Queensland. 

New  South  Wales. 
New  South  Wales. 
New  South  Wales. 
New  South  Wales. 
New  South  Wales. 
New  South  Wales. 


Cutana 

Cutana 

Iron  Monarch.  .  . 
Donnellys 

Mt.  Leviathan 

Carcoar 

Carcoar 

Cadia 

Cadia 

Cadia 

Queahbeyan . . . 


62.49     6.26  0.05  ....     1.16 

49.73  18.47  0.03  0.15     5.08 

66.08     1.19  0.02     1.23 

58.68     0.67  1.03  0.05  11.22 


64.72     2.51     0.065 
4.93 


0.13 


58.03 
56.49 
61.38 
59.65  11.28 
57.96  12.04 


9.22 


0.154  0.015  5.78 
0.064  0.04  7.35 
0.051  0.099  1.53 
0.17  0.028  n.d. 
0.023  0.05  3.20 


64.88     6.04     0.011  0.008  0.69 


Tasmania. 
Tasmania. 


Blythe  River.... 
Blythe  River 


68.7 
68.6 


New  Zealand.     Parapara 58. 19 

New  Zealand.     Parapara 51.39 

New  Zealand.     Parapara 56 . 75 


1.6 

1.8 

3.09 
9.56 
4.90 


0.04 
0.09 


tr. 
tr. 


n.d. 
n.d. 


0.16  0.13  9.64 
0.17  0.11  11.84 
0.18  0.40  9.65 


PART  IV.— EXTENT  AND  CONTROL  OF 
IRON-ORE1  RESERVES. 

CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE  EXTENT  OF  AMERICAN  IRON-ORE  RESERVES 

The  Credibility  of  Reserve  Estimates. — Before  going  on  to  a 
statement  of  the  various  estimates  which  have  been  made  as  to 
American  and  tributary  iron-ore  reserve  tonnages,  it  may  not  be 
amiss  to  consider  briefly  the  manner  in  which  such  estimates  are 
made,  and  the  extent  to  which  they  can  be  relied  on.  Though 
the  matter  is  purely  technical  in  its  nature,  it  should  be  possible 
to  explain  its  principles  and  results  in  non-technical  language. 

There  are  three  different  sets  of  factors  involved  in  making  an 
estimate  of  the  tonnage  of  ore  contained  in  any  given  property  or 
region.  In  each  case,  whether  the  area  and  tonnage  considered 
be  large  or  small,  we  start  from  a  basis  of  engineering  facts, 
interpret  and  utilize  these  facts  by  means  of  geologic  deductions, 
and  finally  correct  our  tonnage  estimates  in  the  light  of  industrial 
conditions.  An  example  may  make  this  clearer,  and  since  the 
principles  involved  do  not  vary  with  the  size  of  the  area,  we  may 
assume  that  a  single  small  property  is  under  consideration.  In 
attempting  to  determine  its  ore  tonnage,  there  are  to  be  considered 
first  of  all  the  facts  that  workable  ore  is  shown  in  some  or  all  of  a 
number  of  natural  exposures,  artificial  openings,  test-pits,  or 
drill-holes.  These  facts  as  to  occurrence  and  thickness  must  be 
interpreted  geologically,  for  the  isolated  records  mean  little  un- 
less some  idea  can  be  secured  as  to  the  form  and  geological  re- 
lations of  the  ore-body.  Finally,  consideration  must  be  given  to 
the  effects  of  ore  grade,  working  conditions,  transportation,  etc. 
It  will  be  seen  that  the  industrial  factors  last  mentioned  are 
really  the  ones  on  which  differences  of  opinion  can  most  readily 
exist.  Two  men  of  approximately  equal  experience  and  train- 
ing can  hardly  differ  as  to  the  records  of  the  drill-holes;  they  may 
differ  somewhat  as  to  the  geologic  interpretation  of  those  records; 

339 


340  IRON  ORES 

but  they  may  differ  very  widely  in  their  ideas  as  to  how  much  of 
the  ore  can  be  considered  available  under  existing  industrial 
conditions.  When  the  problem  is  rendered  more  complicated  by 
attempting  to  determine  what  ore  will  be  available  under  future 
industrial  conditions,  the  differences  in  opinion  are  apt  to  be  still 
wider. 

This  is  an  important  fact,  and  must  be  borne  in  mind  when 
comparisons  are  made  between  tonnage  estimates  by  different 
authorities.  When  these  estimates  differ  widely,  examination 
will  usually  show  that  there  is  substantial  agreement  as  to  the 
facts  of  the  case,  and  that  the  differences  in  the  final  statement 
are  due  chiefly  to  the  point  at  which  the  line  between  available 
and  non-available  ore  has  been  drawn.  In  considering  the  vari- 
ous estimates  which  have  been  made  as  to  the  total  iron-ore 
reserves  of  the  United  States,  which  will  next  be  taken  up,  this 
phase  of  the  matter  must  be  kept  in  mind  steadily. 

It  is  difficult  enough  to  arrive  at  a  definite  comparative  val- 
uation for  two  different  ores,  to  be  used  in  the  same  region  and 
in  a  given  year  when  all  trade  conditions  are  known.  But  the 
problem  becomes  immensely  more  difficult  when  the  compari- 
son is  extended  to  cover  a  large  number  of  ores,  to  be  used  at 
many  different  points  and  during  a  long  series  of  years  under 
unknown  and  variable  trade  conditions. 

If  an  investigator  of  this  problem  wished  to  give  an  air  of 
mathematical  precision  to  his  results,  he  would  have  to  take  into 
consideration  differences  in  grade,  character  and  amount  of  im- 
purities, mining  costs  and  conditions,  concentration  results, 
nearness  to  furnaces  and  to  coke,  labor  costs  and  pig-iron  prices. 
These  factors  would  be  complicated  by  variations  in  general 
business  conditions,  by  the  competition  of  new  ore  supplies,  and 
perhaps  by  changes  in  tariffs. 

It  will  be  seen  that  to  attempt  a  rigidly  mathematical  treat- 
ment of  the  problem  would  be  ridiculous,  for  the  unknown  vari- 
ables would  make  the  apparently  precise  results  merely  fallacious. 
In  this,  as  in  other  problems  involving  future  conditions,  it  will 
be  best  to  put  aside  all  attempt  to  secure  misleading  precision, 
and  to  be  content  with  working  out  the  problem  in  a  manner 
which  will  yield  serviceable  and  reasonably  accurate  results.  For 
most  of  the  purposes  of  life  it  is  better  to  be  approximately  right 
than  precisely  wrong. 


EXTENT  OF  AMERICAN  IRON-ORE  RESERVES     341 

At  the  outset  the  reader  will  do  well  to  understand  that  esti- 
mates of  our  total  iron-ore  reserves,  and  anxiety  over  their 
probable  duration,  are  matters  of  very  recent  date.  England 
has  suffered  periodically,  for  almost  a  century,  from  attacks  of 
panic  over  the  impending  exhaustion  of  her  coal  supply;  and  the 
duration  of  our  own  supply  of  Pennsylvania  anthracite  has  been 
a  subject  of  serious  discussion  for  some  time.  But  the  fear  of 
exhausted  iron  ores  does  not  date  back  as  much  as  ten  years, 
and  its  commencement  in  this  country  was  due  to  the  publication 
of  a  foreign  report  whose  absurdity  should  have  been  enough  of 
itself  to  render  it  harmless. 

The  Tornebohm  Estimate  of  1905. — In  1905,  in  response 
to  a  request  from  the  Swedish  Parliament,  an  eminent  Swedish 
geologist,  Professor  A.  E.  Tornebohm,  prepared  a  report  on 
the  iron-ore  resources  of  the  world.  In  its  original  form,  the 
report  attracted  little  notice  in  the  United  States,  even  among 
those  directly  interested  in  the  iron  industry.  Early  in  1906, 
however,  a  summarized  translation  of  the  report  was  forwarded 
home  by  the  American  consul  at  Paris,  and  the  wide  circulation 
which  is  given  to  consular  reports  in  the  United  States  resulted  in 
drawing  considerable  attention  to  the  matter  in  both  the  daily 
and  the  technical  press. 

The  character  of  the  Tornebohm  report,  in  the  form  in  which 
it  reached  the  American  public,  is  fairly  indicated  by  the  following 
extracts : 

"  It  will  surprise  a  great  many  to  learn  that  we  are  likely  to  run  short 
in  iron  inside  of  a  single  century,  if  we  keep  up  the  present  rate  of  con- 
sumption. As  a  matter  of  fact  we  are  more  likely  to  increase  the  con- 
sumption than  we  are  to  reduce  it.  The  world  has  only  10,000,000,000 
tons  of  iron  ore  available.  Of  these  Germany  has  twice  as  many  tons 
as  the  United  States.  Russia  and  France  each  have  400,000,000  tons 
more  than  this  country.  *  *  *  Assuming  therefore  as  true  the  claim 
of  geological  science  that  the  extent  of  workable  iron-ore  beds  is  known 
to  within  a  margin  of  possible  error  not  exceeding  5  percent,  the  Swed- 
ish report,  which  is  based  upon  the  most  authoritative  information,  has 
naturally  attracted  world-wide  attention.  *  *  *  The  present  output 
of  ore  and  the  amount  of  ore  actually  consumed  by  each  is  as  follows, 
in  tons: 


342 


IRON  ORES 


Country 

United  States 

Great  Britain 

Germany 

Spain 

Russia  and  Finland 

France 

Sweden 

Austria-Hungary.  .  . 
Other  countries .... 

Total . . 


Workable 

Annual 

Annual 

deposits 

output 

consumption 

,100,000,000 

35,000,000 

35,000,000 

,000,000,000 

14,000,000 

20,000,000 

200,000,000 

21,000,000 

24,000,000 

500,000,000 

8,000,000 

1,000,000 

,500,000,000 

4,000,000 

6,00,0000 

,500,000,000 

6,000,000 

8,000,000 

,000,000,000 

4,000,000 

1,000,000 

,200,000,000 

3,000,000 

4,000,000 

,200,000,000 

5,000,000 

1,000,000 

10,000,000,000     100,000,000     100,000,000 


"While  it  is  probable  that  the  foregoing  statement  does  not  take  into 
adequate  account  the  undeveloped  ore  deposits  of  Utah  and  Alabama, 
its  teachings  are  nevertheless  obvious  and  impressive.  Of  the  world's 
workable  iron-ore  deposits,  as  at  present  known,  the  United  States 
possesses  only  about  one-ninth,  and  at  the  present  rate  of  consumption 
the  entire  supply  will  be  exhausted  within  the  present  century." 


Of  the  eleven  hundred  million  tons  credited  by  Tornebohm 
to  the  United  States,  an  even  ten  hundred  million  were  to  come 
from  the  Lake  regions;  sixty  million  from  Alabama,  with  some 
evident  doubt  by  the  Swedish  geologist  as  to  what  these  Alabama 
ores  really  were;  and  the  remaining  forty  million  were  widely 
distributed. 

If  properly  understood,  as  a  report  intended  to  assure  the 
Swedish  people  that  they  controlled  a  very  respectable  per- 
centage of  the  world's  supply  of  high-grade  ores,  the  Tornebohm 
report  was  really  effective.  From  any  other  point  of  view 
it  should  not  have  been  taken  seriously.  Its  publication  by  our 
Consular  Bureau,  however,  gave  it  a  semi-official  aspect;  and  in 
its  summarized  and  annotated  form  its  newspaper  career  was 
amazing. 

At  different  times  in  1905  and  1906,  the  Tornebohm  report 
was  discussed  in  print  by  various  authorities.  Among  others, 
Hadfield,  Shaler,  Birkinbine  and  Leith  mentioned  it  or  treated 
phases  of  the  same  subject,  while  most  of  the  technical  journals 
commented  on  it  editorially.  Practically  all  these  commenta- 
tors deprecated  the  low  estimates  of  the  Swedish  geologist,  but 
no  new  data  for  revised  estimates  were  offered  as  substitutes. 


EXTENT  OF  AMERICAN  IRON-ORE  RESERVES    343 

The  Eckel  Estimate  of  1907. — The  following  extracts  will 
serve  to  fix  a  stage  in  the  development  of  ideas  regarding  the 
iron-ore  reserves  of  the  United  States : 

"The  Lake  Superior  district,  at  present  the  leading  American  producer, 
has  been  explored  more  thoroughly  than  any  other  ore  field  in  the 
United  States,  but  estimates  as  to  total  tonnage  range  within  rather 
wide  limits.  At  present  the  totals  commonly  quoted  vary  from 
1,500,000,000  to  2,000,000,000  tons. 

"In  the  Rocky  Mountain  and  Pacific  States  a  few  large  iron-ore 
deposits  are  known  to  exist,  and  many  others  are  reported,  but  any 
attempt  at  an  estimate  of  total  tonnage  would  be,  with  only  our  present 
knowledge  of  the  subject,  merely  the  wildest  sort  of  guessing. 

"A  more  promising  field  lies  in  the  older  eastern  States.  It  is  prob- 
able that  careful  exploratory  work  will  develop  magnetic  iron  ores  in 
New  York,  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  in  quantities  far  in  excess  of 
anything  usually  considered  possible  in  those  states.  Here  also  close 
estimates  are  impossible. 

"With  regard  to  the  southern  iron  ores  the  case  is  very  different. 
Here  the  work  which  the  Geological  Survey  has  carried  on  during  the  last 
three  years,  which  was  planned  so  as  to  obtain  data  on  the  quantity  of 
ore  available,  gives  a  fairly  secure  basis  for  tonnage  estimates.  It  is 
safe,  therefore,  to  submit  the  following  figures  as  representing  minimum 
values  for  the  workable  iron-ore  reserves  above  the  1000-foot  level  in 
certain  southern  States,  with  the  caution  that  further  exploratory  work 
in  the  South  will  probably  greatly  increase  rather  than  decrease  these 
estimates : 

Red  ore,  tons  Brown  ore,  tons 

Alabama 1,000,000,000  75,000,000 

Georgia 200,000,000  125,000,000 

Tennessee 600,000,000  225,000,000 

Virginia 50,000,000  300,000,000 


Total 1,850,000,000        725,000,000 

This  gives  a  total  estimated  reserve,  for  the  red  and  brown  ores  of  the 
four  states  noted,  of  over  2,500,000,000  tons.  If  to  this  we  add  the 
ores  occurring  at  deeper  levels  in  the  states  named,  and  also  the  red  and 
brown  ores  of  Maryland,  West  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  and  the  mag- 
netic ores  of  the  other  southern  States,  it  is  probably  fair  to  assume  that 
the  total  southern  ore  reserves  will  amount  to  very  nearly  10,000,000,000 
tons.  *  *  *  Much  of  this  ore  is,  of  course,  unworkable  at  the  present 
day,  but  all  of  it  should  be  counted  on  in  any  estimate  of  total  ore 
reserves.  *  *  *  It  may  be  further  added  that  the  estimates  as  to 
red-ore  tonnage  are  probably  much  more  accurate  than  those  relative 
to  brown  ores. 


344  IRON  ORES 

"To  sum  up  the  matter,  in  place  of  the  1,100,000,000  tons  credited  by 
the  Swedish  geologist,  it  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  the  United  States 
has  from  ten  to  twenty  times  that  reserve  of  iron  ore." 

These  large  totals  were  intended  to  include  not  only  the  ore 
of  strictly  available  present-day  grade^  but  the  ores  which  could 
be  reasonably  expected  to  come  into  use  within  the  next  thirty 
or  forty  years,  for  the  question  under  consideration  at  the  moment 
was  the  possible  ultimate  exhaustion  of  the  American  iron  supply. 
No  attempt,  however,  was  made  to  include  the  very  large  low- 
grade  reserves  either  in  the  Lake  regions  or  in  the  South,  for  the 
writer  felt  that  the  use  of  such  ores  would  be  put  off  to  very 
remote  periods,  owing  to  the  increasing  importations  of  ore. 
This  opinion  he  still  retains,  as  will  be  seen  later. 

The  Hayes  Estimate  of  1908. — No  one  connected  with  the 
American  iron  industry  was  really .  worrying  over  a  possible 
shortage  in  our  ore  supply,  and  the  matter  might  perhaps  have 
been  dropped  at  this  stage  if  it  had  not  become  entangled  with 
the  conservation  problem  which  about  that  time  was  being  con- 
sidered by  a  strenuous  executive,  a  puzzled  Congress,  and  a  series 
of  excited  organizations  ranging  from  sewing  circles  to  lumber 
dealers.  Everyone  who  remembers  that  remarkable  episode 
will  recall  with  pained  surprise  the  unanimity  with  which  we 
all  considered  gloomily,  in  turn,  the  impending  scarcity  of  the 
food  supply  and  the  possible  utilizations  of  sawdust;  the  decreas- 
ing number  of  western  farmers  and  the  increase  in  southern 
boll-weevils;  the  substitution  of  steel  for  timber,  because  wood 
was  a  luxury — and  then  later  the  substitution  of  concrete  for 
steel  because  steel  would  be  reserved  for  coinage.  Looking  back 
at  it,  the  pity  of  it  is  that  all  of  this  national  worry  was  so  futile; 
for  how  many  of  the  good  resolutions  made  then  have  been  kept? 
We  have,  it  is  true,  a  more  efficient  forest  service,  and  a  tangible 
forestry  plan.  Also,  it  might  be  added,  the  pension  list  has  been 
kept  from  decreasing,  the  Alaska  coal  is  yet  intact  for  future 
generations,  and  congressional  mileage  is  still  jealously  conserved. 
But  with  these  striking  exceptions,  the  net  gain  has  been  very 
small  in  proportion  to  the  enthusiasm  developed. 

One  of  the  good  features  of  the  conservation  movement  was 
the  establishment  of  a  commission  to  inventory  the  more  im- 
portant raw  materials  of  the  United  States.  The  examination 
of  the  iron-ore  question  was  assigned  to  C.  W.  Hayes,  then  Chief 


EXTENT  OF  AMERICAN  IRON-ORE  RESERVES     345 

ESTIMATES  OF  IRON-ORE  SUPPLIES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  (C.  W.  HAYES) 


Commercial  districts 
(States) 

Magnetite  ores 

Non-titaniferous 

Titaniferous 

Available            Not  available 

Available 

Not  available 

1.  Northeastern  

Long  tons 

160,000,000 
a  12,500,000 

Long  tons 
111,500,000 

23,000,000 
4,500,000,000 

Long  tons 

90,000,000 

Long  tons 

100,000,000 

2  Southeastern 

3.  Lake  Superior 

25,000,000 

4.  Mississippi  Valley  . 
5.  Rocky  Mountain  .  . 
6.  Pacific  Slope  ... 

a  51,485,000 
a  68,950,000 

a  115,440,000 
11,800,000 

1,500,000 
2,000,000 

Total  

292,935,000 

4,761,740,000 

90,000,000 

128,500,000 

a  Includes  some  hematite. 


Commercial  districts 
(States) 

Hematite  ores 

Specular  and  red 

Clinton 

Available 

Not  available 

Available 

Not  available 

1.  Northeastern..  . 
2.  Southeastern.  .  . 
3.  Lake  Superior.  . 
4.  Mississippi  Val- 
ley. 
5.  Rocky     Moun- 
tain. 
6.  Pacific  Slope  .  .  . 

Total 

Long  tons 
2,000,000 

8,000,000 
3,500,000,000 
15,000,000 

4,275,000 

Long  tons 

2,000,000 
53,000,000 
67,475,000,000 
10,000,000 

2,100,000 
10,000,000 

Long  tons 

35,000,000 
463,540,000 
10,000,000 

Long  tons 

620,000,000 
970,500,000 
30,000,000 

3,529,275,000 

67,552,100,000 

508,540,000 

1,620,500,000 

Commercial  districts 
(States) 

Brown  ores 

Carbonate  ores 

Available 

Not  available 

Available 

Not  available 

1.  Northeastern 

Long  tons 

11,000,000 
54,400,000 

Long  tons 

13,500,000 
168,000,000 

Long  tons 

Long  tons 

248,000,000 
62,000,000 

2.  Southeastern  
3.  Lake  Superior 



4.  Mississippi  Valley  .  . 
5.  Rocky  Mountain  .  .  . 
6.  Pacific  Slope  .... 

300,000,000 
2,000,000 

560,000,000 
1,625,000 
105,000 

Total  

367,400,000 

743,230,000 

310,000,000 

Geologist  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey;  and  the  result 
was  the  publication  of  a  most  important  and  detailed  estimate 


346  IRON  ORES 

of  our  total  iron  reserves.  Dr.  Hayes  had  a  wide  acquaintance 
with  American  iron  ores;  and  sufficient  time  and  money  were 
available  to  do  the  work  properly.  His  report  must  stand  as 
the  basis  for  all  future  discussions  of  this  subject. 

1.  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland,  Ohio. 

2.  Virginia,  West  Virginia,  eastern  Kentucky,   North   Carolina,   South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  east  Tennessee. 

3.  Michigan,  Minnesota,  Wisconsin. 

4.  Northwest  Alabama,  west  Tennessee,  west  Kentucky,  Iowa,  Missouri, 
Arkansas,  east  Texas. 

5.  Montana,  Idaho,  Wyoming,  Colorado,  Utah,  Nevada,  New  Mexico, 
west  Texas,  Arizona. 

6.  Washington,  Oregon,  California.. 

Hayes'  final  figures,    by  districts,   are  shown  by  the  table 
below. 

Total  reserves,  in  tons 
Districts  Available  Not  available 

Northeastern 298,000,000  1,095,000,000 

Southeastern 538,440,000  1,276,500,000 

Lake  Superior 3,510,000,000  72,030,000,000 

Mississippi  Valley 315,000,000  570,000,000 

Rocky  Mountain 57,760,000  120,665,000 

Pacific  Slope 68,950,000  23,905,000 


Total,  United  States 4,788,150,000  75,116,070,000 

In  order  to  obtain  any  adequate  idea  of  the  valuable  local  data 
utilized  in  the  Hayes  estimate  which  is  summarized  above, 
reference  must  be  made  to  the  original  report.  At  present  it 
need  only  be  said  that  little  criticism  can  be  directed  against 
the  details  of  the  estimate,  or  against  the  comprehensiveness  of 
the  plan  on  which  it  was  based.  The  point  which  does  require 
attention  is  the  distinction  which  Hayes  made  between  "  avail- 
able" and  "  non-available "  ore  reserve.  In  the  writer's  opinion, 
the  defect  of  the  Hayes  estimate  arises  from  the  fact  that  this 
distinction  was  not  carried  out  on  the  same  basis  in  the  different 
districts.  This  matter  will  be  taken  up  in  more  detail  later,  but 
at  present  it  need  only  be  said  that  Hayes'  practice  in  this  regard 
tends  to  increase  his  estimates  of  Lake  ores  and  to  decrease 
his  estimates  of  southern  ores.  His  "non-available"  ores  in 
the  South  include  large  tonnages  which  would  be  merchantable 
to-day;  his  " non-available "  ores  in  the  Lake  region  include 


EXTENT  OF  AMERICAN  IRON-ORE  RESERVES    347 

rocks  of  a  type  which  will  probably  never  be  used  in  the  iron 
furnace. 

The  Butler-Birkinbine  Estimate  of  1909.— During  1909,  but 
after  the  publication  of  the  Hayes  estimate  which  has  just  been 
discussed,  a  very  interesting  estimate  appeared  in  a  brief  filed 
before  the  Senate  Finance  Committee  by  Mr.  Joseph  G.  Butler, 
Jr.  The  brief  covered  the  entire  question  of  the  iron-ore  situation 
in  the  United  States,  and  brings  up  a  number  of  considerations 
overlooked  in  previous  estimates.  In  this  report  Mr.  Butler  was 
assisted  by  Mr.  John  Birkinbine. 

This  estimate  gives,  as  the  total  tonnage  of  iron  ores  of  present 
commercial  standard  available  in  the  immediate  future,  the  fol- 
lowing figures  for  the  various  districts: 

Area  Tons 

Lake  Superior  region 1,618,000,000 

Southern  States 1,814,940,000 

New  York 750,000,000 

New  Jersey 135,000,000 

Pennsylvania 45,000,000 

Rocky  Mountain  region 100,000,000 


Total  available,  United  States 4,462,940,000 

On  comparison  of  the  Butler-Birkinbine  and  the  Hayes  esti- 
mates, it  will  be  seen  that  they  agree  closely  in  their  figures  for 
total  available  ore,  the  two  totals  being  4,462,940,000  and  4,788,- 
150,000  tons  respectively.  In  the  distribution  of  this  total'among 
the  various  districts,  however,  they  differ  widely.  The  Hayes 
estimate  for  the  Lake  region  is  cut  in  half,  but  his  figures  for  the 
South  and  for  the  northeastern  States  are  more  than  doubled. 
These  changes  seem  to  me  to  be  entirely  in  line  with  the  facts  of 
the  case,  so  that  in  this  respect  the  Butler-Birkinbine  estimate 
may  be  considered  to  be  a  distinct  advance  upon  all  previous 
figures. 

Revised  Estimates,  1912. — In  the  estimate  now  to  be  pre- 
sented, I  have  taken  advantage  of  all  the  earlier  work  hereto- 
fore quoted,  and  have  revised  and  re-arranged  the  results  so  as 
to  accord  with  my  personal  experience  and  with  recent  work  in 
various  areas  by  others.  The  result  is  presented  with  some 
confidence,  as  representing  at  least  a  fair  statement  of  the  case, 
in  the  light  of  present  knowledge. 


348  IRON  ORES 

In  taking  up  the  Lake  Superior  district  we  are  struck  at  first 
by  the  wide  variation  between  the  estimates  of  various  reputable 
authorities;  but  on  considering  their  statements  more  carefully 
it  will  be  found  that  the  differences  are  more  apparent  than  real, 
and  that  they  are  really  differences  of  definition  rather  than  of 
fact.  The  four  important  recent  estimates  give  totals  for  the 
Lake  region  as  follows : 

Authority  Tons 

Hayes 3,510,000,000 

Van  Hise  and  Leith 1,905,000,000 

Butler-Birkinbine 1,618,000,000 

Minnesota-Michigan  Tax  Commission 1,584,000,000 

On  examining  the  data  on  which  estimates  must  be  based,  it 
appears  that  the  Minnesota  Tax  Commission  assesses  the  Mesaba 
and  Vermillion  ranges  in  that  State  as  containing  practically 
fourteen  hundred  million  tons;  and  that  the  very  able  engineer 
who  acted  for  the  Michigan  Tax  Commissioners  estimated  the 
assessable  tonnage  on  the  Michigan  ranges  at  practically  two 
hundred  million  tons.  There  is,  to  start  with,  a  universally 
accepted  total  amount  of  sixteen  hundred  million  tons. 

To  this  must  be  added  the  tonnage  in  certain  ranges  not  con- 
sidered in  the  above  assessments;  the  possibilities  of  new  tonnage 
in  undeveloped  territory;  and  the  possibility  that  the  assessed 
tonnages  were  themselves  actually  too  low.  With  regard  to 
the  first  point,  tonnages  must  be  added  for  Cuyuna  range  in 
Minnesota,  the  Baraboo  and  Clinton  ores  of  Wisconsin;  and  the 
Wisconsin  portions  of  the  Menominee  and  Gogebic  ranges. 
It  is  probable  that  no  one  would  think  of  crediting  this  group 
with  a  total  of  less  than  one  hundred  million  tons,  and  most 
estimates  would  probably  run  considerably  higher.  The  definite 
Lake  aggregate  so  far  is  therefore  seventeen  hundred  million 
tons. 

With  regard  to  the  two  remaining  features  which  will  add  to 
this  total  there  is  obviously  large  room  for  individual  opinion. 
Finlay  estimates  that  in  addition  to  the  assessed  tonnages  on 
the  Michigan  ranges,  there  are  in  all  probability  over  one  hundred 
and  fifty  million  tons  which  these  ranges  will,  in  the  aggregate, 
produce.  In  Minnesota  we  have  to  deal  with  the  certainty  that 
a  system  which  taxes  ore  in  the  ground  is  not  calculated  to  en- 


EXTENT  OF  AMERICAN  IRON-ORE  RESERVES    349 

courage  exploration  or  development  far  in  advance  of  actual 
requirements.  And  there  is,  of  course,  the  further  possibility 
of  new  discoveries  in  territory  now  unprospected. 

Taking  all  of  these  facts  into  consideration,  it  is  difficult  to 
place  the  tonnage  of  strictly  available  ore  of  present-day  com- 
mercial grade  in  the  Lake  region  at  less  than  two-thousand  million 
tons;  and  it  is  probable  that  twenty-five  hundred  million  tons 
would  really  be  nearer  to  the  truth.  But  for  present  purposes 
the  lower  figure  can  be  accepted  with  absolute  safety. 

The  available  data  regarding  the  ore  reserves  of  the  north- 
eastern States  are  still  very  poor,  so  that  there  is  room  for  wide 
difference  of  opinion  here  as  to  total  tonnages.  Newland  has 
given  detailed  estimates  of  the  Clinton  ores  of  New  York;  but 
concerning  the  important  magnetite  deposits  of  the  Adirondacks, 
the  highlands  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  and  southeastern 
Pennsylvania,  we  have  really  very  little  reliable  information. 
Descriptions  of  the  geology  of  the  various  districts  exist  in  pro- 
fusion, but  in  most  of  these  no  attempt  whatever  has  been 
made  to  give  any  consideration  to  the  quantitative  side  of  the 
matter.  Under  these  circumstances  Hayes'  estimates  for  the 
northeastern  States  may  be  accepted  tentatively  as  the  best 
available  at  the  moment,  though  it  is  hoped  that  better  data  will 
be  in  hand  in  the  near  future. 

The  Hayes  figures  for  the  available  ores  of  this  region  are  ap- 
proximately three  hundred  million  tons.  This  is  certainly  close 
to  the  minimum  tonnage  available;  and  at  the  present  moment, 
until  closer  work  has  been  done  in  some  of  the  districts,  we  might 
assume  that  the  maximum  tonnage  which  we  might  expect  would 
be  perhaps  six  hundred  million  tons. 

For  the  Rocky  Mountain  and  Pacific  States  Hayes  figures  one 
hundred  and  twenty-six  million  tons  of  available  ore.  As  our 
information  stands  now,  this  is  almost  certainly  a  heavy  under- 
estimate, for  Utah  alone  would  show  a  far  heavier  tonnage. 
With  regard  to  the  other  western  States  data  are  scanty,  and  the 
range  of  estimate  in  this  district  must  be  wider  than  in  other 
parts  of  the  United  States.  For  our  present  purposes  it  will  not 
seriously  affect  the  accuracy  of  the  final  results  if  we  put  the 
western  States  down  for  a  minimum  of  three  hundred  million 
tons  and  a  possible  maximum  of  seven  hundred  million. 

In  making  up  his  figures  for  the  southeastern  and  Mississippi 


350  IRON  ORES 

Valley  districts,  here 'considered  together  as  the  southern  district, 
Hayes  certainly  drew  the  line  between  available  and  non-available 
ores  in  a  different  way  from  that  employed  in  his  Lake  estimates. 
The  result  is  that  the  two  sets  of  figures  are  not  even  remotely 
comparable.  In  order  to  put  them  on  the  same  footing,  it  would 
be  necessary  to  go  over  the  data  for  each  mining  region  in  detail. 
Space  is  not  available  for  these  computations  in  the  present 
.chapter,  but  the  final  results  may  be  presented  briefly. 

In  the  Hayes  estimates,  three  of  the  southern  districts  suffered 
more  severely  than  the  others,  being  credited  with  far  less  than 
their  minimum  possible  tonnages.  These  are  (1)  the  Birmingham 
red-ore  region,  (2)  the  brown-ore  area  of  northeast  Texas  and  (3) 
the  extensive  brown-ore  region  reaching  from  northwest  Alabama 
through  middle  and  west  Tennessee  into  Kentucky.  In  each 
case  there  were  obvious  reasons  for  the  under-estimates.  At  the 
time  Hayes  prepared  his  report  Texan  ores  seemed  likely  to  be 
out  of  the  market  for  many  years  to  come;  but  recent  freight 
arrangements  will  put  them  into  eastern  ports  on  a  parity  with 
Cuban  ores  of  equal  grade.  In  the  Birmingham  district  there 
has  been  considerable  recent  development  which  enables  us  to 
count  on  far  heavier  tonnages. 

Taking  all  of  these  facts  into  consideration,  the  figures  given  in 
the  table  below  are  probably  justified  in  the  light  of  existing 
knowledge  as  to  conditions  in  the  various  districts.  They  are 
subject  to  change  as  more  details  can  be  secured.  It  is  worthy 
of  note,  however,  that  such  changes  will  almost  inevitably  be  in 
the  direction  of  raising  the  total  minimum  tonnage  here  counted 
on  as  available. 

AMERICAN  RESERVE  TONNAGES 
District  Range  of  estimate 

Lake  Superior 2,000,000,000  2,500,000,000 

Northeastern 300,000,000  600,000,000 

Western 300,000,000  700,000,000 

Birmingham 1,500,000,000  2,000,000,000 

Texas 600,000,000  1,000,000,000 

Other  Southern 500,000,000  750,000,000 


Total  United  States 5,200,000,000     7,550,000,000 

The  above  estimates  include  only  ores  of  present-day  com- 
mercial grade  — such  ores  as  are  now  used  during  years  of  business 


EXTENT  OF  AMERICAN  IRON-ORE  RESERVES    351 

prosperity.  They  do  not  include  the  enormous  reserves  of  very 
low-grade  red  ores  in  the  South,  or  the  low-grade  siliceous  ores  of 
the  Lake  region. 

The  minimum  figures,  in  each  case,  represent  the  lowest  esti- 
mates which  anyone,  writing  to-day,  could  possibly  credit  to  the 
various  districts.  The  higher  figures  represent  the  tonnages 
which  may  fairly  be  hoped  for,  and,  are  in  my  opinion,  the  closer 
to  the  truth. 

Tributary  Reserves. — It  will  be  seen  from  the  preceding  dis- 
cussion, that,  to  adopt  an  average  figure,  we  can  count  on  six 
and  a  half  thousand  million  tons  of  American  iron  ore,  before 
being  compelled  to  accept  a  very  startling  decrease  in  grade. 
But  the  geographic  distribution  of  this  tonnage  is  such  that,  if 
there  were  no  outside  supplies,  we  would  have  to  face  very  dear 
pig  iron  within  comparatively  few  years.  Fortunately  the  free 
importation  of  foreign  ores  will  help  out  in  this  direction,  though 
it  will  be  seen  later  that  the  effect  of  lowering  ore  grades  will  be 
noticeable  even  with  this  aid. 

In  speaking  of  tributary  ore  reserves  it  is  hardly  fair  to  include 
the  Spanish,  Scandinavian  and  other  Old  World  ores,  for  though 
some  of  them  are  imported  heavily  even  now,  they  will  ulti- 
mately be  bought  in  competition  with  European  furnaces  which 
will  need  them  worse  than  ours.  The  reserve  tonnage  which  is, 
however,  properly  tributary  to  American  furnaces,  includes  the 
ore  deposits  of  Canada,  Newfoundland,  the  West  Indies,  Ven- 
ezuela, Brazil,  and  possibly  Mexico.  Other  large  ore  reserves 
will  almost  certainly  be  uncovered  in  the  Caribbean  region,  and 
possibly  elsewhere  to  the  south  of  us,  but  the  reserves  already 
known  are  sufficiently  large  to  give  a  long  lease  of  life  to  the 
American  steel  industry. 

Some  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  tonnage  now  available  may  be 
gained  by  considering  that  Spencer  estimates  that  the  Cuban 
brown-ore  fields  will  yield  three  thousand  million  tons;  and  this 
is  probably  a  very  conservative  statement  of  the  matter.  Other 
islands  of  the  West  Indies  are  known  to  carry  similar  ores,  while 
bordering  portions  of  the  mainland  show  deposits  of  related  type. 
The  Brazilian  iron-ore  ranges  are  of  the  same  order  of  magnitude 
as  our  own  Lake  ranges,  while  their  ore  grade  is  notably  higher 
than  the  average  now  obtainable  from  the  Lake.  The  ores  of 
Canada  do  not  give  promise  of  being  so  extensive  as  those  al- 


352  IRON  ORES 

ready  mentioned,  but  the  reserve  tonnage  of  Newfoundland  is 
still  heavier. 

Taking  all  of  the  known  tributary  ore  fields  into  account,  and 
making  a  very  small  additional  allowance  for  extensions,  it  is 
probably  well  within  limits  to  assume  that  there  are  six  or  seven 
thousand  million  tons  of  merchantable  ore,  in  countries  adjacent 
to  the  United  States,  which  are  more  likely  to  be  used  in  Ameri- 
can furnaces  than  near  the  mines. 

The  United  States  has  been  an  importer  of  iron  ore  for  many 
years,  but  until  1879  the  importations  never  amounted  to  over 
forty  or  fifty  thousand  tons  annually.  Since  that  date  they  have 
increased,  though  not  steadily;  but  with  the  comparatively 
recent  development  of  the  ore  fields  on  the  north  coast  of  Cuba 
the  increase  is  becoming  more  marked.  In  1910,  for  example, 
the  importations  amounted  to  nearly  two  million  six  hundred 
thousand  tons,  of  which  somewhat  over  half  came  from  Cuba. 

As  the  grade  of  our  Lake  shipments  gradually  decreases,  the 
imported  ores  will  naturally  become  of  increasing  importance  to 
the  American  iron  industry.  Their  importation  and  use  will  tend 
to  keep  the  cost  of  manufacturing  pig  iron  from  rising  as  rapidly 
as  it  otherwise  would.  Imported  ores  will  not  be  able  to  stop 
the  trend  toward  higher  manufacturing  costs,  but  they  will  re- 
tard the  process  somewhat.  There  are  no  conceivable  circum- 
stances under  which  American  furnaces  will  be  able  to  make  pig 
iron  as  cheaply  as  during  the  years  of  1893-1897. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
THE  PROBABLE  DURATION  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES 

Accepting  the  estimates  of  the  present  known  ore  reserves  of 
the  United  States,  given  in  the  last  chapter,  as  a  basis  for  further 
discussion,  it  will  be  of  interest  to  determine  how  these  reserves 
compare  with  the  draft  that  is  being  made  on  them  now,  and  with 
the  requirements  which  they  are  likely  to  have  to  meet  within 
the  next  few  decades. 

The  Draft  on  Our  Reserves. — No  detailed  and  accurate  figures 
are  available  as  to  American  iron-ore  production  prior  to  1889, 
so  that  it  is  not  possible  to  state  directly  the  rate  at  which  our 
iron  ores  have  been  drawn  on  in  the  past.  But  this  defect  can 
be  remedied  by  using  the  data  as  to  pig-iron  production,  which 
have  been  recorded  steadily  for  sixty  years,  while  earlier  scattered 
records  enable  us  to  carry  the  figures  back  to  1800. 

The  following  table  has  been  prepared  by  me  for  use  in  this 
connection.  The  figures  prior  to  1854  are  estimates  made  from 
scattered  data.  For  the  later  years,  the  data  are  those  collected 
annually  by  the  American  Iron  and  Steel  Association,  and  may 
be  accepted  as  final. 

PRODUCTION  OF  PIG  IRON,  BY  DECADES,  1800-1910 
Decades  Long  tons 

1801-1810 500,000 

1811-1820 350,000 

1821-1830 1,000,000 

1831-1840 2,300,000 

1841-1850 4,945,000 

1851-1860 6,818,737 

1861-1870 11,366,963 

1871-1880 24,055,278 

1881-1890 56,902,041 

1891-1900 98,124,754 

1901-1910 211,321,934 

On  inspection  of  the  preceding  table  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
American  production  of  pig  iron  has,  on  the  average,  somewhat 
23  353 


54 


IRON  ORES 


more  than  doubled  in  each  decade.     Of  course  there  will  be  a 
point  at  which  this  rate  of  increase  will  be  lowered,  but  at  present 


YEARS 
FIG.  63. 

we  must  accept  the  possibility  that  it  will  continue  for  at  least 
a  few  decades  more.  What  this  means  in  the  way  of  iron-ore 
requirements  can  be  estimated  closely  enough  for  our  present 


PROBABLE  DURATION  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES  355 

purpose  by  assuming  that  at  present  a  ton  of  pig  iron  represents 
slightly  over  2  tons  of  iron  ore;  and  that  the  ratio  of  ore  to 
pig  is  rising  each  year.  Unless  iron  production  slackens,  it  will 
therefore  be  necessary  in  the  decade  1911-1920  to  use  about 
nine  hundred  million  tons  of  ore;  while  the  next  decade  will 
require  close  to  two  thousand  million  tons. 

If  this  draft  on  our  ore  resources,  great  though  it  seems,  were 
distributed  evenly  the  results  would  not  be  industrially  serious 
for  several  decades  more.  But  since  the  bulk  of  the  ore  is  at 
present  drawn  from  one  district,  there  is  evidently  some  reason 
to  give  consideration  to  the  matter. 

The  greatest  strain,  of  course,  will  fall  on  the  Lake  Superior 
district,  which  now  produces  about  four-fifths  of  all  the  iron  ore 
used  in  the  United  States.  If  this  proportion  of  the  total  out- 
put were  to  be  maintained,  the  Lake  ranges  would  have  to  ship 
about  seven  hundred  million  tons  during  the  decade  1911-1920; 
and  over  sixteen  hundred  million  tons  during  the  ensuing  ten 
years.  That  would  make  the  total  Lake  shipments,  from  now 
to  the  year  1930,  amount  to  over  twenty-three  hundred  million 
tons;  and  as  the  total  Lake  reserves  of  present  commercial  grade 
have  already  been  estimated  at  between  two  thousand  and 
twenty-five  hundred  million  tons,  it  will  be  seen  that  at  this  rate 
the  present  Lake  reserves  would  not  last  much  past  the  year 
1930.  Fortunately,  though  this  calculation  is  precise  enough 
arithmetically,  there  are  other  factors  which  will  put  off  the 
exhaustion  of  the  Lake  reserves  to  a  time  further  in  the  future. 

APPARENT  ANNUAL  ORE  CONSUMPTION 

In  an  earlier  chapter  the  tonnage  of  ore  nominally  available 
for  consumption  each  year  was  calculated  by  adding  together 
the  domestic  production  and  imports,  and  subtracting  exports. 
The  results,  given  in  a  table  on  page  186,  are  of  some  interest, 
particularly  for  comparison  with  similar  statistics  for  European 
countries,  calculated  in  the  same  manner  by  the  British  Board 
of  Trade  in  its  annual  reports  on  the  mining  industry. 

For  our  present  purposes,  however,  it  is  necessary  to  arrive  at 
a  somewhat  closer  approximation  to  the  ore  tonnage  actually 
smelted  in  the  United  States  during  each  year.  For  a  number 
of  years  past  an  estimate  of  this  sort  has  been  published  by  the 


356  IRON  ORES 

United  States  Geological  Survey,  in  its  annual  volume  on  mineral 
statistics,  and  with  the  corrections  noted  later  this  estimate  will 
serve  for  use  now. 

The  official  estimate  may  be  expressed  in  a  formula  as  follows : 

A  =  (D  +  I  +  Z  +  SM'  +  SI/)  -  (E  +  SM  +  SL) 

In  which  A  is  the  apparent  annual  ore  consumption,  D  is  the 
tonnage  of  ore  mined  in  the  United  States  in  any  given  year,  E 
and  I  respectively  the  exports  and  imports  of  ore  for  the  same 
year,  SM  the  stocks  of  ore  held  at  mines  at  close  of  the  year  in 
question,  and  SM'  the  stocks  held  at  mines  at  the  close  of  the  pre- 
vious year.  SL  is  the  stock  held  at  Lower  Lake  ports  at  close  of 
navigation  of  the  year  in  question,  and  SL'  stocks  similarly  [held 
the  year  before.  Z  is  the  tonnage  of  zinc  residuum  used  at 
certain  eastern  iron  furnaces.  With  this  explanation  the  reader 
is  in  a  position  to  check  the  figures  given  below,  and  to  continue 
the  table  for  later  years  if  desirable. 

The  table  which  follows  gives  the  basal  data  and  the  results 
of  their  use  in  the  foregoing  formula,  for  the  years  1889  to  1912 
inclusive.  All  the  figures  are  taken  from  the  Geological  Survey 
publication  already  mentioned,  with  the  exception  of  the  1911 
and  1912  estimates.  These  have  been  re-calculated  by  the 
present  writer,  in  order  to  bring  them  into  conformity  with  the 
rest  of  the  series.  This  change  was  necessary,  because  for  1911 
and  1912  the  official  statistician  introduced  an  entirely  new  basis 
of  calculation,  so  that  the  official  estimates  for  these  years  are 
in  no  way  comparable  with  those  of  the  earlier  years. 

The  reader  will  understand,  of  course,  that  the  results  obtained 
by  this  method  of  calculation  are  not  precise,  for  certain  factors 
of  more  or  less  importance  are  omitted  from  the  formula.  There 
are  no  allowances,  for  example,  for  scrap,  blue  billy  and  other 
occasional  ingredients  of  the  charge,  and  no  data  available  for 
estimating  ore  held  in  stock  at  furnaces  over  the  close  of  the 
year.  But  with  all  its  defects,  the  results  have  a  certain  compara- 
tive value,  and  the  final  average  is  doubtless  close  to  the  truth. 
It  might  be  noted  that  during  normal  years  the  actual  ore  con- 
sumption would  always  be  somewhat  above  that  shown  by  the 
table,  since  most  of  the  omitted  factors  are  on  the  side  of  addition 
to  the  supply. 


PROBABLE  DURATION  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES  357 


APPARENT  ANNUAL  ORE  CONSUMPTION,  1889-1912 


Year 

Domestic 
iron  ore 
produced  a 

Stocks 
of  ore  at 
mines 

Stocks  of 
ore  at 
Lower  Lake 
ports 
Dec.  1 

Zinc 
residuum 

Imports 

Exports 

Apparent 
consump- 
tion 

1889 

14.518,041 

2,256,973 

2,607,106 

43,648 

853,573 

14,366,562 

1890 

16,036,043 

2,000,000 

3,893,487 

48,560 

1,246,830 

16,302,025 

1891 

14,591,178 

2,450,279 

3,508,489 

38,228 

912,864 

15,476,989 

1892 

16,296,666 

2,911,740 

4,149,451 

31,859 

806,585 

16,032,687 

1893 

11,587,629 

3,526,161 

4,070,710 

37,512 

526,951 

11,616,412 

1894 

11,879,679 

3,236,198 

4,834,247 

26,981 

167,307 

11,600,393 

1895 

15,957,614 

2,976,494 

4,415,712 

43,249 

524,153 



17,203,255 

1896 

16,005,449 

3,405,302 

4,954,984 

44,953 

682,806 



15,765,128 

1897 

17,518,046 

3,098,287 

5,923,755 

33,924 

489,970 



17,380,184 

1898 

19,433,716 

2,846,457 

5,136,407 

48,502 

187,208 

20,708,604 

1899 

24,683,173 

2,320,278 

5,530,283 

65,010 

674,082 

40,665 

25,513,903 

1900 

27,553,161 

3,709,950 

5,904,670 

87,110 

897,831 

51,460 

26,722,583 

1901 

28,887,479 

4,239,823 

5,859,663 

52,311 

966,950 

64,703 

29,357,171 

1902 

35,554,135 

3,834,717 

7,074,254 

65,246 

1,165,470 

88,445 

35,886,921 

1903 

35,019,308 

6,297,888 

6,371,085 

73,264 

980,440 

80,611 

34,232,399 

1904 

27,644,330 

4,666,931 

5,763,399 

68,189 

487,613 

213,865 

30,224,910 

1905 

42,526,133 

3,812,281 

6,438,967 

90,289 

845,651 

208,017 

43,433,138 

1906 

47,749,728 

3,281,789 

6,252,455 

93,461 

1,060,390 

265,240 

49,355,343 

1907 

51,720,619 

3,033,110 

7,385,728 

93,413 

1,229,168 

278,608 

51,879,998 

1908 

35,983,336 

6,065,397 

8,441,533 

110,225 

776,898 

309,099 

32,473,268 

1909 

51,294,271 

6,135,271 

8,965,789 

141,264 

1,694,957 

455,934 

52,080,428 

1910 

57,014,906 

9,422,285 

9,426,881 

137,173 

2,591,031 

748,875 

55,246,129 

1911 

43,876,552 

12,206,390 

9,131,664 

109,296 

1,811,732 

768,386 

42,540,306 

1912 

55,150,147 

10,241,287 

9,497,168 

104,670 

2,104,576 

1,195,742 

57,763,250 

APPARENT  AVERAGE  ORE  GRADE 

The  table  which  has  just  been  presented  and  discussed  is  of 
immediate  service  in  attempting  to  determine  the  average  grade 
of  ore  used  in  this  country,  and  the  changes  which  have  taken 
place  in  this  average. 

For  this  purpose  I  have  prepared  an  additional  set  of  calcula- 
tions, embodied  in  the  table  following.  Here,  using  the  apparent 
annual  ore  consumption  as  one  factor,  it  has  been  compared  annu- 
ally with  the  pig-iron  production  of  the  same  year. 

At  first  glance  the  data  presented  in  the  table  immediately  pre- 
ceding may  seem  too  confused,  as  to  trend,  to  give  indications  of 
much  value  for  our  present  purpose,  though  even  casual  inspec- 
tion will  show  that  the  average  for  the  past  decade  must  fall  con- 
siderably below  the  average  for  the  decade  preceding. 

The  conditions  are  brought  out  more  clearly,  as  usual,  when  the 
data  are  put  in  diagrammatic  form,  as  in  Fig.  64.  The  form  of 
the  curve  shown  in  this  diagram  should  be  studied  carefully, 


358 


IRON  ORES 


APPARENT  AVERAGE  ORE  GRADE,  1889-1912 


Apparent  ore 

Pig-iron  output, 

Apparent  average 

consumption,  tons 

tons 

ore  grade 

14,366,562 

7,603,642 

52.91% 

16,302,025 

9,202,703 

56.50 

15,476,989 

8,279,870 

53.48 

16,032,687 

9,157,000 

57.14 

11,616,412 

7,124,502 

61.35 

11,600,393 

6,657,388 

57.47 

17,203,255 

9,446,308 

54.95 

15,765,128 

8,623,127 

54.64 

17,380,184 

9,652,680 

55.56 

20,708,604 

11,773,934 

56.82 

25,513,903 

13,620,703 

53.25 

26,722,583 

13,789,242 

51.55 

29,357,171 

15,878,354 

54.35 

35,886,921 

17,821,307 

49.75 

34,232,399 

18,009,252 

52.63 

30,224,910 

16,497,033 

54.64 

43,433,138 

22,992,380 

53.19 

49,355,343 

25,307,191 

51.28 

51,879,998 

25,781,361 

49.69 

32,473,268 

15,936,018 

49.07 

52,080,428 

25,795,471 

49.53 

55,246,129 

27,303,567 

49.42 

42,540,306 

23,649,547 

55.59 

57,763,250 

29,728,937 

51.46 

Year 

1889 
1890 
1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 
1901 
1902 
1903 
1904 
1905 
1906 
1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 
1911 
1912 
1913 
1914 
1915 


bearing  in  mind  at  the  same  time  the  general  condition  of  the 
iron  industry  in  the  different  years  covered  by  the  figure.  When 
this  is  done,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  complex  of  figures  in  the  table 
results  from  the  action  of  several  quite  regular  and  distinct 
tendencies,  which  sometimes  oppose  each  other  and  sometimes 
are  cumulative  in  their  effects. 

Factors  Determining  Average  Grade. — The  fact  is  that  the 
question  of  changing  grade  is  not  simple,  but  complex,  and  there- 
fore the  curve  does  not  fall  regularly  with  the  years.  Its  form 
is,  on  the  contrary,  determined  by  a  number  of  factors,  of t  which 
the  more  important  are : 

1.  The  general  condition  of  the  iron  industry.  During  hard 
times,  when  iron  production  is  cut  down  to  the  minimum,  ore 
prices  are  correspondingly  low,  and  the  grade  of  ore  used  is  subject 


PROBABLE  DURATION  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES  359 


to  close  scrutiny.  During  a  period  of  low  iron  production,  there- 
fore, the  average  grade  of  ore  used  will  be  high.  When  pros- 
perity is  at  hand,  however,  ore  prices  are  high,  and  the  furnaces 
will  take  almost  anything  that  can  reasonably  be  called  ore.  In  a 
boom  period,  therefore,  the  average  grade  of  ore  will  fall. 

2.  The  discovery   of  new  sources  of  ore   supply.     When  a 
new  high-grade   ore  district  is  discovered  the  tendency  is  for 


65 


J60 


55 


u.50 
o 


45 


\ 


V 


A 


01  o  —  cj 
o  —  —  — 
<y»  0*>  cr>  <r> 


YEARS 

FIG.  64. — Changes  in  average  ore  grade,  1889-1912. 

the  average  ore  grade  to  rise  sharply  as  the  new  product  enters 
the  market,  and  then  to  fall  gradually  but  regularly  when  the 
new  field  begins  to  show  signs  of  exhaustion.  During  the  period 
covered  by  this  table  and  diagram  only  one  such  important  dis- 
covery was  made,  and  the  first  heavy  shipments  from  the  Mesaba 
range  carry  the  average  for  the  year  1893  to  the  highest  point 
on  record. 


360  IRON  ORES 

3.  General  exhaustion  of  ore  supplies.  This  factor,  though 
overshadowed  at  times  by  the  two  preceding,  is  the  one  which 
must  be  the  final  cause  of  any  regular  decrease  in  average  grade 
of  ores.  It  would  be  important,  even  if  the  pig-iron  production 
were  constant,  but  it  assumes  much  greater  importance  when  an 
annually  increasing  demand  for  ore  has  to  be  allowed  for. 

The  effect  of  these  three  main  factors  can  be  traced  on  the 
diagram  with  some  distinctness.  Our  highest  average  was 
reached  in  1893,  when  a  fresh  supply  of  high-grade  ore  reached 
the  market  during  a  period  of  low  iron  production.  In  this  case 
the  two  factors  had  a  cumulative  effect.  If  the  Mesaba  had  made 
its  first  heavy  shipments  during  a  boom  year  it  would  have  tended 
to  neutralize  the  temporary  lowering  of  grade  due  to  the  boom. 

When  allowance  is  made  for  the  varying  condition  of  the  iron 
trade  in  the  different  years,  it  must  be  said  that  the  diagram 
seems  to  show  a  fairly  regular  decrease  in  ore  grades  for  most 
of  the  period  covered  by  it.  From  the  high  point  of  1893,  the 
progress  downward  was  practically  steady  until  1911.  That 
year,  for  the  first  time,  showed  a  rise  in  grade  more  than  could 
have  been  anticipated.  It  remains  to  be  seen,  however,  whether 
or  not  this  interruption  to  the  general  course  of  events  was  more 
than  temporary. 

The  Future  Course  of  Ore  Grades. — So  far  as  our  domestic 
supplies  of  iron  ore  are  concerned,  the  factors  which  bear  upon 
this  problem  are  sufficiently  well  defined  as  to  admit  of  little 
error  in  outlining  the  probable  future  course  of  ore  grades.  With 
regard  to  imported  ores  the  case  is  different,  for  here  we  are 
dealing  apparently  with  an  early  stage  in  a  movement  whose 
final  limits  can  not  well  be  set.  In  discussing  the  course  which 
average  ore  grades  will  probably  take  in  the  future,  it  is  therefore 
advisable  to  consider  first  the  conditions  as  to  domestic  supply, 
and  then  make  some  attempt  to  outline  the  probabilities  as 
regards  imported  ores. 

The  Lake  Superior  ores,  which  now  are  the  mainstay  of  the 
American  iron  industry,  are  showing  a  fairly  steady  decrease  in 
grade  from  year  to  year.  The  falling  off  in  the  average  grade 
of  the  Lake  ores,  over  the  past  ten  or  fifteen  years,  has  been  about 
one-half  of  1  percent  a  year.  Part  of  this  decrease  is  necessary 
while  part  is  due  to  intentional  use  of  lower  grades  during  years 
of  large  shipment.  Conservation  of  the  total  supply  by  such  in- 


PROBABLE  DURATION  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES  361 

termixture  of  low-grade  ores  is  commercialy  possible  only  for 
such  companies  as  operate  on  a  large  scale  and  with  the  expecta- 
tion of  remaining  in  the  business  for  many  years  to  come.  The 
small  independent  producer,  in  this  as  in  other  industries,  is 
forced  to  operate  uneconomically,  and  to  ship  his  best  ore  each 
year,  regardless  of  prices  or  business  conditions. 

If  the  Lake  Superior  district  were  the  sole  source  of  supply,  it 
could  be  assumed  with  fair  safety  that  the  average  grade  would 
decrease  slowly  but  steadily  for  some  years  to  come;  that  the 
heavy  reserves  of  ore  in  the  neighborhood  of  45  percent  iron 
would  hold  the  average  around  that  point  for  a  long  period  of 
years;  and  that  between  40  and  35  percent  the  demand  could  be 
met  almost  indefinitely  without  causing  further  decrease  in  grade. 
If  the  Lake  Superior  average  grade  reached  45  percent,  therefore, 
its  further  downward  progress  would  be  very  slow;  and  at  40 
percent  or  somewhat  less  the  decrease  would  be  checked  for  a 
great  number  of  years. 

Considering  our  southern  supplies  in  similar  detached  fashion, 
it  may  be  assumed  that  the  average  red  ore  today  is  little  if  any 
above  36  percent  iron.  Of  course,  being  limey  ores,  these  36 
percent  red  ores  would  rank  commercially  far  above  siliceous 
Lake  ores  of  equal  iron  grade.  Without  attempting  a  precise 
comparison,  it  may  perhaps  be  assumed  for  present  purposes  that 
they  are  technically  equivalent  to  a  Lake  ore  carrying  45  to 
47  percent  iron.  The  fact  of  interest,  however,  is  that  there  are 
very  heavy  reserve  tonnages  of  this  36  percent  grade  available, 
as  compared  with  either  the  present  southern  rate  of  ore  con- 
sumption, or  with  any  future  rate  which  seems  probable.  The 
decrease  in  average  southern  grade  will  therefore  be  very  slow, 
and  if  in  time  the  demand  justifies  the  use  of  30  percent  ore, 
the  reserves  of  this  grade  available  are  sufficient  practically  to 
stop  any  further  decrease. 

A  third  source  of  supply  that  seems  to  be  just  on  the  verge 
of  becoming  a  more  important  factor  in  the  situation  is  the  mag- 
netite reserve  in  the  eastern  and  southern  states.  Apparently 
a  slight  further  decrease  in  average  grade  of  the  Lake  ore  will 
open  the  way  for  marketing  large  tonnages  of  magnetic  ores, 
in  addition  to  the  amounts  which  are  now  annually  used  in  eastern 
furnaces. 

In  the  preceding  sections  the  possibilities  of  the  Lake  hematites, 


362  IRON  ORES 

the  Southern  red  ores  and  the  Eastern  magnetites  have  been  sepa- 
rately considered.  It  is  now  possible,  still  disregarding  the  ques- 
tion of  imported  ores,  to  group  these  results  and  obtain  some  idea 
as  to  the  domestic  ore  situation.  The  matter  might  be  sum- 
marized by  saying  that  if  domestic  ore  supplies  furnished  all 
the  ore  used  in  American  furnaces,  grade  would  probably  de- 
crease slowly  until  45  percent  is  reached;  that  its  further  decrease 
to  40  percent  would  be  very  slow,  owing  to  the  large  Lake  ton- 
nages available  at  this  level,  to  the  relative  slow  fall  in  southern 
grade,  and  to  the  increasing  use  of  magnetic  ores.  Below  40 
percent  the  decrease  would  be  so  slow  as  to  be  hardly  noticeable, 
until  the  domestic  reserves  were  entirely  exhausted.  If  the  Lake 
district  ever  gets  down  to  a  37  percent  average,  the  South  would 
be  running  on  30  percent  ore;  and  the  average  for  the  country 
might  be  35  percent  or  thereabouts. 

Heretofore  our  attention  has  been  confined,  for  the  sake  of 
clearness,  to  the  domestic  ore  situation;  but  this  is  obviously  a 
very  limited  view  of  the  case,  though  it  has  been  the  favorite  of 
the  conservation  enthusiasts.  As  soon  as  the  question  of  ore 
imports  is  considered,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  entire  status  of  the 
matter  is  changed.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  we  have  at  our 
doors,  in  territory  within  the  political  and  industrial  sphere  of  the 
United  States,  ore  reserves  so  immense  as  to  dwarf  our  own  do- 
mestic supplies.  For  our  present  purposes  attention  can  be 
limited  to  the  ore  fields  now  developed  along  the  north  coast  of 
Cuba,  though  as  elsewhere  stated  there  are  good  reasons  for 
supposing  that  the  ores  now  known  constitute  only  a  fraction  of 
the  total  tonnage  that  will  ultimately  be  found  available  in  that 
general  region.  Newfoundland,  Africa,  Brazil  and  Europe  are 
equally  unnecessary  in  the  present  discussion. 

Even  if  we  limit  attention  to  the  Cuban  brown  ores,  we  have 
to  deal  with  a  reserve  aggregating  at  least  three  thousand  million 
tons  of  ore  grading  after  concentration  from  50  to  perhaps  55 
percent  iron.  This  can  be  mined,  treated,  and  placed  in  the 
United  States  at  a  reasonable  figure.  The  relation  of  these  ores 
to  the  domestic  supply  can  be  summarized  about  as  follows :  At 
the  present  day  steel  plants,  located  along  the  coast  anywhere 
between  New  York  City  and  Brunswick,  Ga.,  could  use  Cuban 
ores  profitably  as  compared  with  any  possible  large-scale  do- 
mestic supply.  Assuming  that  there  are  no  serious  changes  in 


PROBABLE  DURATION  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES  363 

tariffs,  water  rates,  or  rail  rates,  it  seems  probable  that  before  the 
average  Lake  ore  grade  fell  to  45  percent  it  would  be  profitable  to 
run  Pittsburgh  furnaces  on  imported  ore.  This  of  course  would 
involve  a  great  decrease  in  the  rate  at  which  our  domestic  re- 
serves will  be  drawn  on,  and  a  corresponding  decrease  in  the  rate 
at  which  our  average  grade  will  fall. 

The  Effect  on  Pig-iron  Costs. — As  the  grade  of  the  average  fur- 
nace ore  gradually  lowers,  an  increase  in  pig-iron  costs  necessarily 
accompanies  the  decreased  grade.  It  is  true  that  advances  in 
technology  or  decreases  in  labor  costs  may  operate  in  the  contrary 
direction,  but  savings  made  in  this  way  will  be  negligible  compared 
with  the  other  increases  in  expenses. 

Lowered  grade  of  ore  means  not  only  an  increased  consumption 
of  ore,  fuel,  and  flux  per  ton  of  pig  iron,  but  an  increase  in  labor,  re- 
lining  and  overhead  costs  (per  ton  of  pig)  due  to  decreased  out- 
put per  day.  In  addition,  as  the  ore  grade  lowers,  it  is  probable 
that  the  price  of  ore  per  unit  of  iron  will  rise;  and  the  price  of 
coke  will  show  the  same  tendency.  These  latter  factors  cannot  be 
valued  closely,  but  the  increases  due  to  increased  consumption  of 
ore,  fuel  and  flux  are  definite  enough.  Dealing  with  ores  of  the 
grades  now  under  consideration,  with  Pittsburgh  conditions  as  to 
grade  of  flux  and  coke,  a  decrease  of  5  percent  in  the  iron  content 
of  the  ore  involves  the  additional  use  of  about  0.17  tons  of  ore, 
0.12  tons  of  coke,  and  0.36  tons  of  fluxing  stone  per  ton  of  pig 
iron  produced. 

Using  the  data  last  noted,  and  inserting  approximate  current 
prices  for  the  three  raw  materials,  it  will  be  found  that  a  drop  in 
ore  grade  from  50  percent  to  45  percent  implies  an  increase  in  cost, 
for  raw  materials  alone,  of  about  $1.25  per  ton  of  pig  iron.  When 
the  other  elements  of  cost,  which  also  increase  as  ore  grade  lowers, 
are  considered,  the  total  increase  becomes  still  more  serious.  In 
addition,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  cost  of  coke  per  ton, 
labor  per  day,  and  iron  ore  per  unit,  are  likely  to  increase  in  the 
future. 

It  is  impossible  to  put  a  fair  value  on  all  of  these  elements  of 
increased  cost,  but  from  those  which  are  definitely  known  it  seems 
safe  to  conclude  that  the  cost  of  pig  iron  will  increase  at  the  rate  of 
between  twenty-five  and  fifty  cents  per  ton,  for  each  decrease 
of  1  percent  in  the  average  iron  content  of  the  ores  to  be  used. 
In  an  earlier  section  of  this  chapter  it  has  been  shown  that  he 


364  IRON  ORES 

average  grade  has  decreased  almost  one-half  of   1  percent   a 
year,  during  the  past  twenty  years  or  so. 

If  we  could  assume  that  this  decrease  in  average  grade  would 
continue,  it  would  be  necessary  to  accept  the  fact  that  as  a  con- 
sequence of  the  fall  in  average  ore  grade,  there  would  be  a  corre- 
spondingly steady  and  marked  increase  in  the  cost  of  making  pig 
iron.  But  we  can  hardly  go  as  far  as  this  with  safety,  for  there 
are  two  elements  which  will  operate  to  interfere  with  a  future  de- 
crease in  ore  grades.  First,  there  is  the  probability  that  in  future 
larger  tonnages  of  Lake  ore  will  be  subjected  to  drying  or  to  con- 
centration prior  to  shipment,  and  this  will  tend  to  raise  or  to 
maintain  the  average  grade  of  the  shipments  from  the  Lake  Su- 
perior region.  Second,  and  still  more  important,  there  will  be 
the  restraining  influence  of  imported,  Adirondack  and  Texan  ores, 
which  will  have  to  be  reckoned  with  from  now  on. 


•CHAPTER  XXVIII 
OWNERSHIP  AND  CONTROL  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES 

In  preceding  chapters  the  total  extent  and  probable  duration 
of  the  iron-ore  reserves  of  the  United  States  have  been  discussed 
in  some  detail.  In  this  discussion  the  ore  reserves  were  treated 
as  purely  physical  bodies,  and  it  was  not  necessary  to  refer  in  any 
way  to  their  ownership.  In  the  present  chapter,  however,  these 
same  ore  reserves  will  be  considered  from  an  entirely  different 
point  of  view,  attention  being  concentrated  upon  this  very 
matter  of  ownership.  As  will  be  noted  later,  there  are  two  dis- 
tinct questions  which  can  be  raised  concerning  the  type  and  ex- 
tent of  ore-reserve  ownership,  and  signs  are  not  wanting  that 
both  of  these  questions  will  be  brought  up  for  decision  in  the 
near  future.  There  is,,  first  of  all,  the  question  whether  private 
ownership  of  ore  reserves  has  progressed  to  such  an  extent  that 
it  affords  monopolistic  advantages.  Second  to  this  in  point  of 
time,  but  not  of  importance,  is  the  broader  question  whether 
private  ownership  is  to  be  allowed  under  any  circumstances. 
We  may  cover  up  these  questions  in  more  politic  and  more  accept- 
able language,  but  after  all  they  amount  to  this. 

Stages  in  the  Evolution  of  Opinion. — It  will  be  seen  that  both 
the  questions  involved  are  of  immediate  interest  and  of  great 
importance,  not  only  to  the  iron  industry,  but  to  all  American 
industrial  development.  The  formulation  of  a  proper  public 
policy  for  dealing  with  control  of  raw  materials  and  other  natural 
resources  must  be  preceded  by  careful  study  of  all  the  factors 
which  are  concerned  in  the  matter.  If  we  are  to  retain  our 
present  system  of  entirely  private  control  of  such  matters,  the 
present  status  must  be  justified  by  proving  that  it  is  both  equi- 
table and  efficient.  For  if  it  can  be  proven  that  private  ownership 
leads  to  either  injustice  or  inefficiency,  some  form  of  Government 
regulation  will  ultimately  result.  In  either  case  the  policy 
adopted,  to  be  of  permanent  value,  should  be  based  upon  the 
facts  of  the  case,  and  not  be  accepted  merely  because  it  happens 

365 


366  IRON  ORES 

to  fit  in  with  what  seem  to  be  the  political  or  business  require- 
ments of  the  hour. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  recall  that  two  very  detailed  investiga- 
tions of  the  American  steel  industry  have  recently  been  made,  by 
a  Congressional  Committee  and  by  the  Bureau  of  Corporations 
respectively;  or  that  a  suit  for  the  dissolution  of  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation  is  now  pending  in  the  courts.  The  fact  that 
these  various  investigations  and  suits  have  been  prosecuted 
during  the  past  few  years  is  of  advantage  to  a  certain  extent,  for 
they  have  furnished  a  large  selection  of  views  and  data  from  which 
to  quote.  But  on  the  other  hand,  it  involves  the  very  serious 
disadvantage  that  the  writer,  in  suggesting  that  one  view  of  a 
controverted  question  seems  more  reasonable  than  another,  may 
be  considered  to  have  the  fate  of  one  particular  corporation  in 
mind,  and  to  be  arguing  the  case  as  a  partisan  instead  of  stating 
the  facts  and  probabilities  fairly.  This  difficulty  may  as  wel 
be  recognized  frankly,  and  the  only  possible  reply  to  such  criticism 
is  to  offer  the  discussion  itself  in  proof,  and  to  submit  that  it  does 
not  bear  evidence  of  having  been  treated  in  a  partisan  spirit. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  it  may  be  noted  that  much  of  the  data  here 
presented  had  been  prepared  for  use,'  in  another  form,  some  time 
before  politicians  discovered  that  iron  ore  could  be  made  to 
yield  publicity  as  well  as  pig  iron. 

In  an  earlier  section,  where  discussion  of  the  ore  reserves  of 
the  United  States  was  taken  up,  it  was  pointed  out  that  until 
1906  or  thereabouts  no  one  was  particularly  interested  one  way 
or  another  in  the  total  quantity,  probable  duration,  or  ownership 
of  our  iron-ore  reserves.  It  was  known,  of  course,  that  some 
individuals  and  corporations  owned  more  ore,  or  better  ore,  than 
others;  but  it  was  commonly  assumed  that  this  was  due  either 
to  good  fortune  or  to  the  exercise  of  better  business  judgment. 
It  seems  fair  to  say  that,  up  to  then,  no  one  considered  that  there 
was  anything  unjust,  either  to  competitors  or  to  the  public,  in 
these  conditions.  The  possibility  that  any  one  individual  or 
corporation  had  secured  or  could  secure  ownership  of  all  the  iron 
ores  of  the  country,  or  of  any  dangerous  proportion  of  those  ores, 
was  not  even  dreamed  of. 

In  1906,  however,  an  extremely  pessimistic  foreign  estimate 
of  America's  ore  resources  reached  the  public  eye,  and  became 
of  interest  in  connection  with  an  already  well-formulated  "Con- 


OWNERSHIP  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES         367 

servation  Movement."     This  resulted  in  a  second  stage  of  public 
opinion  regarding  iron-ore  supplies  and  their  ownership. 

The  Conservation  Viewpoint. — In  order  properly  to  understand 
the  situation  at  this  stage,  it  must  be  recalled  that  the  conserva- 
tion movement,  at  its  inception  and  for  some  time  after,  was  not 
concerned  with  the  ownership  of  our  various  natural  resources, 
but  with  their  waste  and  exhaustion.  Reasoning  from  conditions 
which  undoubtedly  existed  in  the  lumber  industry,  it  was  perhaps 
too  hastily  assumed  that  a  careful  study  of  mining  conditions 
would  show  that  vast  quantities  of  valuable  minerals  were  being 
left  in  the  mines  or  otherwise  wasted.  Soon  after  this,  however, 
this  idea  was  further  developed  into  the  view  that,  whatever 
might  be  the  actual  situation  with  regard  to  mining  wastes,  there 
was  also  need  for  careful  study  of  the  actual  extent  of  some  of 
the  more  important  mineral  supplies.  Accordingly  it  was  decided 
to  secure  as  close  an  estimate  as  possible  of  the  total  available 
American  reserves  of  iron  and  certain  other  metallic  ores,  of  coal, 
oil  and  gas,  and  of  phosphate  rock.  The  reason  for  this  particular 
selection  of  subjects  will  probably  always  remain  a  mystery, 
but  the  list  omitted  a  number  of  mineral  products  whose  supply 
is  apparently  limited,  and  on  the  other  hand  included  some  of 
unquestioned  abundance. 

This  investigation  of  mineral  resources  was  carried  out  by 
geologists  detailed  from  the  United  States  Geological  Survey, 
and  reports  on  the  results  of  their  work  were  later  published  by 
that  organization.  The  work  on  iron  ores  had  been  placed  in 
charge  of  Dr.  C.  W.  Hayes,  then  chief  geologist  of  the  Survey, 
and  his  report  is  discussed  in  some  detail  in  an  earlier  chapter. 
So  far  as  we  are  here  concerned  with  the  matter,  the  Hayes  report 
may  be  summarized  as  stating  (1)  that  there  is  no  serious  avoid- 
able waste  in  iron  mining;  (2)  that  the  immediately  available  iron 
ores  of  the  United  States,  of  present  commercial  grade,  aggregate 
almost  five  thousand  million  tons;  (3)  that,  in  addition,  there  are 
about  seventy-five  thousand  million  tons  of  ore,  of  lower  grade 
or  more  poorly  located,  which  will  gradually  become  available  as 
the  better  ores  become  exhausted;  and  (4)  that  certain  reserves 
of  high-grade  ore,  aggregating  several  thousand  million  tons, 
located  in  Cuba,  Canada,  and  Newfoundland,  must  logically  be 
considered  a  portion  of  the  immediately  available  American 


368  IRON  ORES 

reserve,  since  they  can  be  used  most  economically  and  profitably 
in  the  United  States. 

Impossibility  of  Actual  Monopoly. — In  Chapter  XXVII  it 
has  been  also  pointed  out  that  both  our  own  immediately  avail 
able  reserves  and  the  ore  reserves  in  commercially  tributary  ter- 
ritory are  in  fact  much  larger  than  the  Hayes  report  would 
imply.  In  any  casual  discussion  of  the  matter  it  will  be  safe  to 
assume  that  the  available  American  reserve  amounts  to  at  least 
six  or  seven  thousand  million  tons,  and  that  the  tributary  ton- 
nage is  approximately  as  large. 

At  intervals  there  has  been  a  good  deal  of  rather  indefinite  talk 
about  the  existence  or  possibility  of  absolute  monopoly  in  ore 
ownership.  Consideration  of  the  tonnages  involved  in  the  prob- 
lem, as  briefly  stated  above,  will  serve  to  show  the  great  practical 
difficulties  which  would  prevent  the  formation  of  an  absolute 
monopoly,  even  were  there  no  competitive  purchasers  or  legal 
prohibitions  to  hinder  attempts  in  this  direction.  At  present, 
therefore,  both  the  possibilities  and  the  actual  conditions  in  this 
line  should  be  fairly  well  understood,  and  it  is  not  probable  that 
anyone  who  has  paid  much  attention  to  the  subject  takes  the 
possibility  of  absolute  monopoly  very  seriously. 

As  to  existing  conditions,  some  idea  can  be  gained  by  consider- 
ing that  even  the  largest  existing  steel  company  has  not  advanced 
very  far  in  the  direction  of  ore  control.  Estimates  based  on  the 
official  reports  of  the  Minnesota  and  Michigan  Tax  Commissions 
credit  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  with  owning  approxi- 
mately 45  percent  of  the  Lake  ore  reserves.  In  the  South  its 
holdings  are  far  smaller,  both  relatively  and  absolutely,  amount- 
ing probably  to  one-fifth  or  less  of  the  total  southern  reserve; 
while  in  the  western  and  northeastern  ore  districts  it  does  not 
appear  as  a  serious  ore  owner.  For  the  entire  United  States, 
therefore,  its  proportion  drops  to  perhaps  one-quarter  of  the  total; 
and  if  Cuba  be  included,  to  a  far  smaller  fraction.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company,  through  its  control 
of  the  Pennsylvania  and  Cambria  Steel  companies,  is  a  very  close 
second  to  the  Steel  Corporation  in  the  matter  of  total  ore  tonnage 
owned,  and  far  exceeds  it  if  total  ownership  be  compared  with 
actual  annual  requirements.  Many  of  the  smaller  companies 
have,  in  similar  fashion,  acquired  far  heavier  ore  holdings  than 
the  Steel  Corporation,  relative  to  their  needs. 


OWNERSHIP  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES         369 

From  any  point  of  view,  however,  it  is  obvious  enough  that 
actual  monopoly  does  not  exist,  and  that  it  is  not  even  danger- 
ously approached.  It  will  be  later  seen  that,  entirely  irrespective 
of  legal  conditions,  there  are  good  business  reasons  for  not 
attempting  to  secure  it. 

Present  Status  of  the  Discussion. — With  the  passing  of  the 
idea  that  it  would  be  either  feasible  or  profitable  for  one  company 
to  secure  control  of  all,  or  almost  all,  of  the  American  reserve  of 
iron  ore,  the  ground  of  discussion  has  been  shifted.  This  shift 
has  been  so  gradual,  however,  that  even  in  discussing  the  subject 
we  are  hardly  aware  of  the  change.  We  still  speak  casually  of 
attempted  or  threatened  monopolies  in  ore  holdings,  while  as  a 
matter  of  fact  we  are  really  dealing  with  something  quite  different, 
and  the  arguments  which  would  support  or  refute  the  old  charges 
as  to  monopoly  are  valueless  in  treating  the  present  phase  of  the 
discussion. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  desirable  to  consider  some  of 
the  points  which  are  now  brought  into  the  field.  In  doing  this  it 
will  be  absolutely  necessary  to  take  cognizance  of  the  various 
investigations  which  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  has 
undergone,  at  the  hands  of  Government  bureaus  and  Congres- 
sional committees,  for  in  the  course  of  these  investigations  all 
possible  phases  of  the  question  have,  at  one  time  or  another,  been 
brought  into  view.  It  will  not  be  necessary,  however,  to  limit 
the  present  study  to  that  particular  corporation,  for  in  order  to 
be  of  any  real  value  the  conclusions  reached  must  be  of  general 
application.  Since  practically  all  of  the  iron  and  steel  manufac- 
turing companies  of  the  United  States  have  followed  the  same 
general  methods  as  regards  acquisition,  ownership,  and  valuation 
of  ore  reserves,  it  is  possible  to  carry  out  this  discussion  without 
narrowing  its  scope  to  an  individual  instance. 

Recent  Views  on  Ore  Ownership. — During  recent  years  most 
of  the  opinions  expressed  on  this  subject  have  been  by  lawyers  or 
politicians,  rather  than  by  engineers  or  manufacturers.  It  is 
obvious  enough  that  this  situation  is  not  likely  to  result  in  a 
careful  and  impartial  consideration  of  a  rather  complex  technical 
problem,  for  neither  the  legal  nor  the  political  habit  of  mind  is 
adapted  to  secure  an  adequate  and  fair  presentation  of  a  matter 
involving  close  reasoning  from  engineering  and  financial  data. 
The  acutely  logical  mind  of  the  lawyer  is  often  engaged  in  working 

24 


370  IRON  ORES 

over  a  mass  of  very  doubtful  data,  while  the  politician  too  often 
regards  neither  basal  data  nor  logic. 

The  result  is,  that  in  discussing  this  subject,  we  have  to  deal 
with  an  extensive  and  variable  mass  of  argument  and  opinion 
relative  to  ore  ownership,  some  of  which  is  distinctly  worthy  of 
attention,  while  much  more  can  not  be  taken  very  seriously.  In 
considering  this  great  variety  of  opinion,  selection  of  the  views 
which  seem  to  be  important  enough  to  justify  further  discussion 
is,  of  course,  largely  a  matter  of  personal  judgment.  The  prin- 
cipal views  which  have  been  seriously  advanced  within  the  past 
five  or  six  years,  regarding  the  monopolistic  ownership  or  use  of 
iron-ore  reserves,  seem  to  be  those  which  may  be  briefly  summar- 
ized as  follows : 

(1)  That  ownership  of  ore  mines  by  steel  companies  is  an  ab- 
normal and  comparatively  recent  condition;  and  that  the  public 
interest  would  be  best  served  if  an  absolutely  independent  set  of 
mine  owners  sold  ore  to  a  distinct  set  of  furnace  men. 

(2)  That,  though  actual  monopoly  does  not  exist,  some  or  all 
of  the  larger  steel  companies  hold  greater  ore  reserves  than  are 
demanded  or  justified  by  their  actual  requirements,  as  indicated 
by  their  present  annual  consumption  of  ore. 

(3)  That,  though  actual  monopoly  does  not  exist,  there  are  not 
sufficient  ore  lands  remaining  in  independent  hands  to  permit  the 
formation  of  a  large  new  steel-manufacturing  company. 

(4)  That,  regardless  of  extent  of  ownership,  the  steel  compa- 
nies are  in  a  position  to  earn  excessive  profits  on  their  finished 
steel,  because  of  assumed  excessive  valuations  placed  on  their  ore 
reserves. 

In  glancing  over  this  group  of  summarized  opinions,  the  reader 
will  immediately  note  that,  whatever  their  individual  value,  they 
are  to  some  extent  mutually  contradictory.  It  would  be  difficult, 
for  example,  to  accept  simultaneously  conclusions  1  and  4,  for 
obviously  the  excessive  valuations  assumed  in  4  would  be  more 
than  counterbalanced  by  the  new  set  of  intermediate  profits 
which  would  be  introduced  if  1  were  accepted  and  followed. 
Similar  contradictions  occur  elsewhere  in  the  series,  when  the 
various  arguments  and  views  are  critically  examined,  but  in  spite 
of  this  certain  recent  reports  have  managed  to  accept  the  entire 
series  simultaneously. 

Accepting  the  four  views  above  summarized  as  representing, 


.  OWNERSHIP  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES         371 

for  the  moment  at  least,  the  most  widely  published  opinions  in 
criticism  of  the  present  status  of  ore  ownership,  it  will  be  of  inter- 
est to  discuss  in  some  detail  the  general  principles  by  which  the. 
validity  of  the  different  views  must  be  tested.  It  will  be  found, 
curiously  enough,  that  many  points  which  are  commonly  thought 
to  be  mere  matters  of  opinion  can,  in  reality,  be  determined  with 
mathematical  accuracy. 

Of  the  four  questions  which  have  been  raised,  the  first  and  sec- 
ond will  be  considered  in  the  present  chapter,  as  being  most 
closely  related  to  the  subject  of  ore-reserve  control.  The  third 
does  not  require  detailed  discussion,  for  the  chapters  devoted  to 
description  of  the  ore-producing  districts  of  the  United  States  will 
serve  to  suggest  the  possibility  of  increasing  output  and  acquiring 
unworked  properties  in  the  different  regions.  The  fourth  ques- 
tion will  be  treated,  incidentally  to  a  discussion  of  ore  reserve 
valuation,  in  a  later  chapter  of  this  volume. 

THE  FUNDAMENTAL  QUESTION  OF  OWNERSHIP 

The  view  first  cited  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  broadest 
and  most  fundamental  criticism  that  can  possibly  be  brought 
against  the  existing  status  of  ore  ownership.  It  is  of  importance, 
not  because  of  its  inherent  strength  and  soundness,  but  because 
of  its  basal  character,  and  because  of  the  dangerous  remedies 
which  it  invokes. 

This  view,  briefly  stated,  is  that  any  ownership  of  ore  mines  or 
lands  by  iron  or  steel  manufacturers  is  abnormal,  and  contrary  to 
good  public  policy.  It  involves,  as  will  be  seen,  a  question  of 
historic  fact  and  a  question  of  future  policy.  Taking  up  the 
first  phase  of  the  matter,  it  is  notable  that  during  some  of  the 
recent  discussions  of  the  steel  industry,  there  became  evident  a 
curious  misconception  of  the  relations  which  have  normally 
existed  in  the  past  between  iron-ore  mines  and  blast  furnaces. 
The  Chairman  of  the  Stanley  Committee,  for  example,  frequently 
framed  questions  on  the  obvious  assumption  that  ownership  of 
mines  by  furnace  interests  dated  back  only  to  the  advent  of  the 
large  steel  combinations — say  to  1900  or  thereabout.  It  was 
evidently  taken  for  granted  by  Mr.  Stanley,  as  well  as  by  some 
of  his  associates  on  the  committee,  that  during  all  the  earlier 
periods  of  the  history  of  the  American  iron  industry,  furnace 


372  IRON  ORES 

owners  ordinarily  bought  their  ore  from  an  entirely  independent 
set  of  mine  owners.  This  erroneous  assumption,  unimportant 
in  itself  because  it  relates  to  a  matter  of  purely  historic  interest, 
becomes  of  great  importance  as  the  argument  is  followed  out, 
for  it  is  used  as  a  basis  for  conclusions  of  immediate  and  serious 
import.  Assuming  that  ore  ownership  by  furnace  interests  is  a 
recent  development  in  the  industry,  the  conclusion  drawn  is  that 
such  ownership,  in  its  present  stage,  is  a  step  in  the  direction  of 
final  ore  monopoly. 

As  a  matter  of  historic  fact,  the  assumption  that  mine  and 
furnace  have  normally  been  separate  enterprises  could  hardly  be 
further  from  the  truth.  During  all  of  the  earlier  periods  of  Ameri- 
can iron  history,  the  furnace  owned  and  operated  the  mine,  and 
was  ordinarily  located  near  it.  In  the  south,  east  and  west  this 
business  relation  between  the  two  has  persisted  uninterruptedly 
until  the  present  day,  so  that  over  the  greater  portion  of  the 
United  States  merchant  ore  mines  have  never  been  of  great 
importance.  The  Champlain  and  imported  ores  hardly  qualify 
this  statement. 

Some  light  is  thrown  upon  the  views  held  on  this  point  a  cen- 
tury ago  by  the  following  quotation  from  Cooper,1  writing  on 
United  States  practice  in  1813.  "I  have  repeatedly  met  with 
persons  who  think  that  nothing  more  is  necessary  to  render  a 
place  valuable  for  iron  works  than  that  there  should  be  plenty 
of  iron  ore  on  it.  But  besides  this,  which  ought  to  be  at  least  a 
twenty  years  stock,"  *  *  *  the  author  points  out  that  many 
other  things  are  requisite  for  profitable  operation — markets, 
labor  supply,  charcoal  lands,  water  power,  etc.  His  suggestions 
along  these  lines  are  interesting,  and  might  still  be  taken  to  heart 
by  certain  promoters.  But  our  present  interest  is  directed  chiefly 
toward  the  evident  assumption  that  the  iron  industry  is  based 
primarily  upon  the  mine,  and  that  the  furnace  was,  at  that  date, 
merely  a  method  of  utilizing  a  mining  property. 

In  the  Lake  Superior  district,  however,  there  was  a  relatively 
short  period  when  the  independent  ore  mine  was  the  most  impor- 
tant factor  in  the  industry.  This  condition  arose  gradually,  was 
due  to  peculiar  local  conditions,  and  seems  to  be  passing.  Since 
the  conditions  which  caused  it  have  disappeared,  the  merchant 

1  Emporium  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  new  series  vol.  1,  p.  18.  Philadelphia, 
1813. 


OWNERSHIP  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES         373 

mine  is  apparently  on  the  way  to  becoming  as  scarce  in  the  Lake 
region  as  it  has  always  been  elsewhere  in  the  country. 

At  the  commencement  of  mining  in  the  Lake  Superior  iron 
district,  the  merchant  mine  was  not  contemplated,  for  all  of  the 
earlier  enterprises  were  planned  with  the  idea  of  making  charcoal 
iron  in  the  Lake  region  itself.  Later,  when  the  ore  began  to  be 
shipped  east,  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  very  first  shipments  were 
to  a  furnace  whose  owners  promptly  secured  the  mine  and  com- 
menced direct  operation.  As  the  mining  area  extended,  however, 
and  the  older  iron-producing  centers  became  more  and  more 
dependent  upon  the  Lake  district  for  their  ore  supplies,  the 
independent  or  merchant  mine  became  a  prominent  factor  in  the 
industry,  and  remained  so  for  thirty  years  or  more.  The  eastern 
furnace  men,  confident  that  all  their  annual  ore  requirements 
could  readily  be  filled  in  the  open  market,  put  their  spare  capital 
or  new  capital  into  additional  smelting  and  finishing  plants,  as 
promising  more  immediate  and  larger  profits  than  investments  in 
mining  lands. 

Throughout  all  this  period,  however,  there  had  always  been 
mines  operated  directly  by  furnace  interests,  or  controlled  by 
them;  and  each  period  of  depression  in  the  iron  business  tended 
to  decrease  the  relative  importance  of  the  merchant  mines.  In 
the  eighties  and  early  nineties  this  process  became  more  marked, 
and  long  before  the  so-called  " Trusts"  were  formed  most  of  the 
larger  iron  and  steel-manufacturing  companies  had  mining  inter- 
ests in  the  Lake  region.  There  is  little  to  indicate  that  the  later 
formation  of  the  great  industrial  combinations  had  much  effect, 
one  way  or  the  other,  on  the  decline  in  merchant  mining.  It  was, 
after  all,  merely  a  return  to  the  conditions  which  had  always 
existed  in  the  other  American  iron-mining  regions. 

Effect  of  Independent  Operation. — Nothing  further  need  be 
said  concerning  the  historical  side  of  the  matter,  on  which  fortu- 
nately the  record  is  sufficiently  clear  and  decisive.  Some  con- 
sideration must  be  given,  however,  to  the  industrial  features  of 
the  problem,  in  an  attempt  to  determine,  so  far  as  possible,  what 
form  of  mine  ownership  is  likely  to  result  in  the  maximum  of 
economy  and  efficiency. 

At  present  we  are  concerned  chiefly  in  comparing  the  results 
attainable  under  independent  or  merchant  ownership  with  those 
reached  when  the  mines  are  controlled  by  the  iron  and  steel 


374  IRON  ORES 

companies  directly.  It  must  not  be  overlooked,  however,  that  a 
third  possibility  is  either  openly  or  implicitly  put  forward  by 
some  critics  of  the  existing  status.  For  the  logical  result  of  over- 
throwing this  status  would  be,  not  to  increase  the  importance  of 
the  merchant  mine,  but  to  introduce  some  form  of  Government 
regulation  or  operation.  We  may  reasonably  look  forward  to 
meeting,  in  the  near  future,  arguments  in  favor  of  one  of  the 
following  alternatives:  (1)  Government  ownership  of  ore  lands; 
(2)  Government  ownership  and  operation  of  sufficient  mines  and 
reserves  to  control  the  market;  or  (3)  some  form  of  Government 
regulation  of  ore  prices.  These  possibilities  may  sound  unreason- 
able, but  they  follow  logically  enough  from  a  conclusion  that 
operation  of  mines  by  steel  companies  is  either  inefficient  or 
inequitable. 

As  to  the  facts  in  the  case,  direct  evidence  is  difficult,  and  we 
can  only  judge  from  the  comparative  results  attained  in  the  past, 
at  different  mines  and  in  different  regions,  under  the  two  methods 
of  operation.  From  this  basis,  the  following  conclusions  seem  to 
be  justified. 

(1)  If  all  the  iron  and  steel  companies  bought  ore  from  inde- 
pendent mines  in  the  open  market,  the  fluctuations  in  ore  prices 
would  be  wider  than  under  present  conditions.     In  prosperous 
years  the  mines  would  demand  prices  greater  than  they  can  now 
secure;  in  poor  years  they  would  sell  ore  at  the  cost  of  mining, 
without  allowance  for  depreciation  or  amortization. 

(2)  Over  a  long  series  of  years,  including  the  usual  proportion 
of  good  and  bad  periods,  the  price  of  ore  would  average  notably 
higher  than  at  present,  for  the  mines  when  conducted  as  inde- 
pendent enterprises  would  expect  a  higher  rate  of  profit  than  they 
are  now  credited  with. 

(3)  So  far  as  technical  efficiency  is  concerned,  that  would  not 
suffer  if  all  of  the  mines,  though  independent  of  the  steel  compa- 
nies, were  in  the  hands  of  two  or  three  large  mining  companies. 
But  if  the  ownership  of  the  mines  were  widely  scattered,  so  that 
a  number  of  relatively  small  mining  companies  existed,  we  might 
expect  a  marked  decrease  in  efficiency.     One  result  would  be, 
almost  certainly,  that  only  high-grade  ore  would  be  shipped  so 
long  as  it  could  be  secured.     This  would  cause  an  increase  in  the 
percentage  of  waste,  and  a  shortening  of  the  life  of  the  ore 
reserves. 


OWNERSHIP  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES         375 

From  the  standpoint  of  either  industrial  efficiency  or  of  the 
public  interest,  there  seems  therefore  to  be  little  to  justify  the 
criticism  that  independent  ownership  and  operation  of  the  mines 
would  yield  better  results  than  are  secured  now. 

THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  RESERVE  OWNERSHIP 

The  question  next  to  be  considered  is  whether  the  iron  and 
steel  companies  have  secured  ore  reserves  so  far  in  excess  of 
their  requirements  as  to  justify  the  suspicion  that  the  purchases 
were  really  monopolistic  in  intent,  if  not  in  effect.  It  is  obvious 
that  in  order  to  settle  this  question  it  is  first  necessary  to  decide 
what  the  actual  requirements  of  a  modern  steel  company  are,  in 
the  line  of  ore  reserves.  It  will  be  found,  on  examination,  that 
both  their  minimum  requirements  and  their  allowable  maximum 
reserves  are  fixed  by  business  considerations;  and  that  both  are 
clearly  definable. 

Minimum  Permissible  Reserves. — Taking  up  first  the  ore 
requirements  of  a  modern  steel  company,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the 
minimum  ore  reserve  which  a  steel-manufacturing  company  can 
safely  carry  is  determined,  and  determined  within  rather  close 
limits,  by  the  amount  of  its  investment  in  manufacturing  plant 
and  other  fixed  property.  It  would  be  obviously  injudicious  to 
risk  a  heavy  investment  which  might  be  made  entirely  valueless 
within  a  few  years  by  a  shortage  in  ore  supply.  To  be  in  a  sound 
financial  position,  a  steel  company  must  therefore  own  sufficient 
ore  to  justify  the  erection  of  a  steel  plant  of  commercially  com- 
petitive size,  and  to  guarantee  that  this  plant  will  be  able  to 
remain  in  operation  on  a  competitive  basis  for  a  long  period  of 
years. 

The  length  of  the  period  whose  ore  supply  should  be  made  cer- 
tain may,  in  fact,  be  fixed  with  some  approach  to  accuracy.  A 
modern  steel  company,  making  its  own  pig  iron  and  steel,  and 
selling  a  varied  line  of  finished  products,  will  necessarily  have 
invested  in  plant  and  other  fixed  property  somewhere  in  the 
neighborhood  of  forty  to  sixty  dollars  per  ton  of  steel  annually 
sold.  These  figures  seem  to  be  within  the  limits  of  the  data 
presented  recently  in  a  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Corporations, 
which  certainly  did  not  err  in  the  direction  of  overcapitalization, 
and  they  may  therefore  be  accepted  as  close  to  the  possible  mini- 
mum investment  for  which  such  a  plant  could  be  put  together. 


376  IRON  ORES 

We  may  therefore  assume  that  the  average  plant  investment, 
excluding  ore  lands  and  working  capital,  is  fifty  dollars  per  ton 
of  annual  product.  It  is  clear  that  if  the  profitable  life  of  this 
plant  is  limited  by  the  duration  of  its  ore  supply,  a  short-lived  ore 
supply  will  necessarily  mean  that  a  heavy  allowance  must  be 
made  each  year  to  cover  the  ultimate  scrapping  of  the  plant. 
However,  this  allowance  may  be  handled  in  an  accounting  sense, 
it  will  in  fact  be  a  direct  addition  to  the  cost  of  producing  each  ton 
of  steel.  Disregarding  for  the  moment  the  effect  of  interest 
charges  to  this  account,  it  is  roughly  accurate  to  say  that  if  the  ore 
supply  is  only  sufficient  to  last  ten  years,  it  adds  five  dollars  per 
ton  to  the  cost  of  producing  steel;  if  the  ore  supply  will  last 
twenty-five  years,  this  additional  charge  will  be  only  two  dollars 
per  ton;  if  the  ore  will  last  fifty  years,  one  dollar  per  ton  of  finished 
product  will  cover  the  final  scrapping  loss. 

In  reality,  each  of  these  figures  would  be  decreased  somewhat 
by  interest  credited  to  the  sinking  fund,  but  that  fact  does  not 
seriously  alter  their  relative  importance,  or  affect  the  bearing  of 
the  present  argument. 

Industrially,  it  is  evident  that,  other  things  being  equal  and 
merchant  ore  unobtainable,  the  relative  duration  of  their  two  ore 
reserves  will  determine  the  competitive  status  of  two  steel  com- 
panies. A  company  which  must  charge  off  five  dollars  per  ton 
of  steel  in  order  to  provide  against  a  short-lived  ore  supply  can 
not  hope  to  compete  with  a  rival  whose  charge  to  this  account  is 
only  one  dollar  per  ton. 

It  is  obvious  that  there  is  a  practical  limit  to  the  utility  of  this 
line  of  reasoning.  The  difference  in  the  sinking-fund  charge  per 
ton  decreases  rapidly  as  the  duration  of  the  ore  supply  increases, 
and  after  a  time  becomes  practically  negligible.  Taking  this 
into  account,  it  might  perhaps  be  said  that  a  modern  steel  com- 
pany can  hardly  afford  to  have  less  than  a  twenty-five  year  sup- 
ply of  ore ;  that  a  larger  supply  would  be  even  more  economical ; 
but  that  after  a  fifty  or  sixty  year  supply  is  secured  the  economy 
due  to  still  longer  life  becomes  too  small  to  be  important  com- 
mercially. 

Maximum  Advisable  Reserve. — It  has  been  seen  that  the 
minimum  ore  reserve  which  a  steel  company  can  safely  and 
economically  provide  is  fixed,  within  quite  definite  limits,  by 
purely  business  considerations.  It  is  equally  true,  though  it 


OWNERSHIP  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES         377 

seems  to  be  less  commonly  understood,  that  the  maximum 
reserve  which  it  is  economical  or  advisable  for  a  company  to  own  is 
also  fixed  by  business  considerations.  That  is  to  say,  whatever 
the  state  of  the  law  or  of  public  sentiment  on  the  subject,  there  is 
a  point  beyond  which  it  is  not  profitable  to  go,  in  the  way  of 
owning  large  ore  supplies.  This  point  is  fixed  by  the  rapidity 
with  which  carrying  charges — interest,  taxes,  etc. — accumulate 
on  ore  which  is  not  used  within  a  reasonable  number  of  years 
after  its  purchase. 

At  this  point  it  is  necessary  to  call  attention  to  the  differences 
introduced  by  variations  in  the  original  cost  of  the  ores.  Obvi- 
ously the  carrying  charges  on  a  hundred-year  supply  of  cheaply 
acquired  ores  will  be  less  than  on  an  equal  supply  of  more  expen- 
sive ores;  but  the  full  effect  of  this  factor  is  rarely  comprehended. 
If  we  recall  that  the  average  holdings  of  Lake  Superior  or  north- 
eastern ores  may  have  cost  the  companies  from  twenty  to  fifty 
cents  or  more  per  ton,  in  the  ground,  while  the  average  Cuban  or 
southern  ore  reserve  has  perhaps  cost  from  one-tenth  of  a  cent 
to  two  or  three  cents  per  ton,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  difference  in 
carrying  cost  must  be  enormous.  The  result  of  this  is  that  it  is 
economically  possible  to  carry  far  larger  reserves  of  Cuban  or 
southern  ores  than  of  the  more  expensive  northern  ores. 

Data  on  Actual  Reserves. — The  following  table  presents  specific 
data  relative  to  some  points  which  have  just  been  discussed  in  a 
general  way.  In  it  will  be  found  the  total  reserve-ore  tonnage  of 
a  number  of  typical  American  iron  and  steel  companies,  and  the 
present  annual  rate  of  ore  consumption  of  these  same  companies. 
From  these  two  sets  of  figures  it  is  of  course  a  mere  matter  of 
arithmetic  to  determine  the  approximate  length  of  life  of  the  ore 
reserve  of  each  company,  provided  its  average  annual  require- 
ments do  not  increase.  This  they  are  of  course  likely  to  do,  but 
we  may  for  our  present  purposes  assume  that  all  of  the  companies 
will  grow  at  about  the  same  rate,  so  that  the  figures  in  the  last 
column  are  in  any  case  strictly  comparable. 

With  regard  to  the  sources  of  the  data  used,  it  may  be  said  that 
the  annual  consumption  given  is  either  the  exact  or  the  approxi- 
mate tonnage  taken  out  during  1910,  a  record-breaking  year  so 
far  as  ore  shipments  were  concerned.  The  reserve  tonnages  for 
the  Steel  Corporation  in  the  Lake  district  are  based  on  those 
reported  by  the  Minnesota  and  Michigan  Tax  Commissions; 


378 


IRON  ORES 


while  its  Alabama  reserve  (400,000,000  tons)  is  taken  from 
reports  by  a  number  of  engineers.  The  Republic  reserves  are 
quoted  from  annual  reports  of  that  company ;  and  the  Sloss  figure 
from  an  appraisal  report.  The  Pennsylvania  and  Bethelem  data 
are  from  semi-official  notices  regarding  the  Cuban  lands  of  the 
two  companies.  The  Woodward  figure  is  submitted  by  the 
present  writer,  and  though  calculated  on  a  different  basis  from 
the  other  southern  reserves,  is  close  enough  for  our  present  use. 
The  Dominion  and  Nova  Scotia  figures  are  estimates  based  on 
recent  work,  and  are  probably  conservative,  amazing  though  they 
may  seem  to  anyone  whose  attention  has  been  fixed  on  the  Lake 
district.  Taken  as  a  whole,  these  estimates  of  reserve  tonnage 
may  be  accepted  as  being  fair,  impartial,  and  as  accurate  as 
possible. 

ORE  HOLDINGS  AND  CONSUMPTION  OF  STEEL  COMPANIES 


Company 

Ore  district 

Tonnage  owned 

Present 
annual 
draft 

Duration 
of  supply, 
years 

United  States  Steel  Corp 

Lake  district 

900  000  000 

21  000  000 

43 

United  States  Steel  Corp.  .  .  . 

Lake  and  Alabama. 

1,300,000,000 

23,000,000 

55 

Pennsylvania  Steel  Co 

Cuba  alone 

600,000  000 

934  092 

642 

Republic  Iron  &  Steel  Co  . 

Alabama 

89,000  000 

700  000 

127 

Republic  Iron  &  Steel  Co...  . 

Lake  and  Alabama. 

128,000,000 

2,000,000 

64 

Bethlehem  Steel  Co  

Cuba  alone  

250,000,000 

318,814 

783 

Sloss-Sheffield  Co  

Alabama  

78,000,000 

800,000 

95 

Woodward  Iron  Co  

Alabama  red  ores.  . 

235,000,000 

500,000 

450 

Dominion  Steel  Corp  

Newfoundland  

600,000,000 

700,000 

425 

Nova  Scotia  Steel  &  Coal  Co. 

Newfoundland  

2,000,000,000 

600,000 

3300 

When  the  figures  in  the  subjoined  table  are  examined,  and 
compared  with  the  requirements  as  calculated  in  preceding  sec- 
tions, it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  little  reason  to  believe  mono- 
polistic intent  has  had  much  influence  on  ore-reserve  purchases. 

The  companies  whose  chief  holdings  are  in  the  Lake  Superior 
district  have  really  rather  scanty  reserves  there.  They  would 
probably  be  glad  to  increase  their  holdings,  but  present  prices 
for  Lake  ores  in  the  ground  are  high,  and  the  carrying  charges 
would  be  heavy.  The  companies  which  have  secured  reserves 
in  the  south  or  in  Cuba,  where  ore  lands  are  still  incomparably 
cheaper  than  in  the  Lake  region,  are  subject  to  lighter  carrying 
charges,  and  can  therefore  take  on  far  heavier  reserves  without 
entering  upon  policies  of  doubtful  economy. 


OWNERSHIP  OF  AMERICAN  RESERVES         379 

The  Industrial  Effects  of  Overvaluation. — The  factors  which 
influence  ore  prices,  and  the  methods  and  results  of  ore-reserve 
valuation  have  both  been  discussed  in  considerable  detail  else- 
where in  this  volume.  In  the  present  place  there  is  no  necessity 
to  go  over  this  ground  again,  but  attention  may  be  called  to  the 
conclusions  which  were  reached — first,  that  most  companies  have 
rather  undervalued  than  overvalued  their  ore  reserves,  from  a 
strictly  business  point  of  view,  and  second,  that  no  company  has 
ever  valued  its  reserves  as  high  as  their  smelting  or  industrial 
value  would  justify.  If  these  conclusions  be  generally  accepted, 
there  is  little  need  to  consider  what  effect  overvaluation  might 
have,  provided  it  were  practised.  One  fact,  however,  would  seem 
to  be  obvious.  That  is,  that  unless  all  steel  companies  equally 
overvalued  their  ores,  there  could  be  no  possible  effect  on  prices. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  overvaluation  by  one  or  two  companies, 
under  any  decent  accounting  system,  would  simply  result  in 
placing  them  at  a  distinct  disadvantage  in  competition . 

The  Feasibility  of  New  Competition. — Another  phase  of  the 
subject  may  be  touched  on  briefly,  as  being  too  irrelevant  to  be 
given  much  weight,  though  the  argument  has  been  recently 
advanced  in  all  seriousness.  Reference  is  made  to  the  complaint 
that  it  would  be  impossible  to  build  up  a  great  new  competing 
unit  in  the  American  steel  industry,  because  our  ore  reserves  are 
now  so  held  that  an  adequate  ore  simply  could  not  be  secured  by 
purchase  from  owners  unconnected  with  the  iron  industry. 
Looked  at  impartially  this  seems  to  be  about  parallel  with  a 
complaint  that  a  builder  wishing  to  erect  structures  on  Manhattan 
Island  would  not  be  able  to  secure  the  necessary  land  by  purchase 
from  an  original  Indian  owner.  So  far  as  the  statements  about 
present  ore  ownership  are  concerned,  it  is  very  doubtful  if  they  are 
based  on  accurate  premises,  but  even  if  that  were  the  case,  the  con- 
clusion does  not  seem  to  be  sound.  If  it  were  true  that  a  new  steel 
company  would  not  be  able(to  put  together  large  ore  holdings  by 
purchase  from  small  individual  owners,  the  conditions  would  not 
be  due  to  the  intentional  operations  of  the  existing  companies, 
but  to  our  general  system  of  private  land  ownership.  A  new 
arrival  in  any  line  of  business  can  hardly  hope  to  secure  his  site, 
his  raw  materials,  his  labor  or  his  customers  as  cheaply  as  the 
competitors  who  were  first  on  the  ground;  and  there  does  not 
seem  to  be  any  good  reason  to  single  out  the  iron  industry  for 


380  IRON  ORES 

criticism  in  this  respect.  In  closing  this  discussion  it  is  well  to 
point  out  that  this  particular  line  of  criticism  would  become  im- 
portant only  if  it  could  be  proven  both  (1)  that  it  is  impossible  to 
secure  adequate  ore  supplies  for  a  new  plant,  on  a  reasonable 
basis,  and  (2)  that  if  this  is  the  case,  the  impossibility  is  due  to 
deliberate  attempt  at  monopoly  on  the  part  of  the  existing 
companies;  for  if  the  effect  were  purely  incidental,  due  to  a  gen- 
eral shortage  of  ore  supply,  it  could  hardly  be  open  to  criticism. 
In  the  writer's  opinion,  neither  of  these  conditions  can  be  proven. 
Whatever  the  hopes  and  expectations  of  1901  may  have  been, 
time  has  shown  that  effective  ore  monopoly,  on  a  tonnage  basis, 
has  not  been  attained.  On  the  contrary,  the  most  surprising 
feature  of  the  iron  industry  has  been  the  manner  in  which  new 
and  enormous  reserves  have  been  discovered  and  utilized.  Cuba, 
Brazil,  and  Newfoundland  are  cases  in  point.  Ten  companies 
the  size  of  the  largest  one  now  existing  could  get  their  reserve 
necessities  satisfied  in  these  new  fields. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 
THE  IRON-ORE  RESERVES  OF  THE  WORLD 

The  principal  known  iron-ore  deposits  of  the  world  have  been 
described  in  certain  preceding  chapters  (Chapters  XVI  to  XXV) 
and  in  the  course  of  the  descriptions  an  attempt  has  been  made 
to  give  some  idea  of  their  relative  importance.  In  the  present 
chapter  this  matter  will  be  taken  up  in  more  detail,  and  so  far 
as  possible  placed  on  a  quantitative  basis.  It  is  of  course  obvi- 
ously impossible  that  any  one  engineer  should  have  a  personal 
acquaintance  with  more  than  a  fraction  of  the  world's  ore  depo- 
sits, and  under  ordinary  circumstances  it  would  be  impossible  to 
hazard  anything  like  a  summary  of  the  reserve  tonnage  of  the 
world.  But  fortunately  a  recent  publication  has  placed  in  con- 
venient form  the  bulk  of  the  statistical  raw  material  required 
for  such  an  estimate;  and  this  will  be  used  in  the  light  of 
such  knowledge  as  we  have  concerning  its  precision  and 
accuracy. 

In  1908  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  llth  International 
Geologic  Congress,  planning  for  the  meeting  at  Stockholm  in 
1910,  asked  various  geologists  for  reports  on  the  iron-ore  resources 
of  different  countries  with  which  they  were  familiar,  with  the 
design  of  securing  a  complete  description  of  the  known  iron-ore 
resources  of  the  world.  These  reports  were  published1  in  1910, 
with  a  valuable  prefatory  summary  by  H.  Sjogren. 

World  Estimates,  I.  G.  C. — The  statistics  received  by  the 
International  Geologic  Congress  were  classified  into  three  groups, 
according  to  the  exactness  with  which  the  estimates  had  been 
made.  In  group  A  were  included  "such  cases  in  which  a  reliable 
calculation  of  the  extent  of  the  deposit,  based  on  actual  investi- 
gations, has  been  carried  on;  group  B  includes  those  deposits  in 
which  only  a  very  approximate  estimate  can  be  arrived  at;  and 
group  C  includes  such  deposits  as  can  not  be  represented  in 

xThe  Iron-ore  Resources  of  the  World,  two  volumes  and  atlas.  Published 
by  the  General  Staff,  Stockholm,  1910. 

381 


382 


IRON  ORES 


THE  I  RON -ORE  RESERVES  OF  THE  WORLD     383 

figures  at  all.  The  table  below  shows  to  what  extent  the  reports 
received  belong  to  one  or  the  other  of  these  groups";  and  it  also 
shows  what  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  was  not  included  at  all 
in  the  inquiry,  for  one  reason  or  another. 


Total  area, 
in 
square 
kilometers 

Area 
included  in 
group  A. 
sq.  kilom. 

Area 
included   in 
group  B. 
sq.  kilom. 

Area 
included   in 
group  C. 
sq.  kilom. 

Area  not 
included  in 
the  inquiry, 
sq.  kilom. 

Europe  .... 

.  .     9,724,321 

9,063,725 

260,333 

166,520 

233,743 

America  .  .  . 

.  .  38,323,629 

7,851,470 

10,689,348 

17,605,631 

2,177,183 

Australia.  . 

.  .     8,948,120 

1,296,661 

6,667,500 

983,959 

Asia  

.  .  44,179,400 

452,922 

218,200 

31,807,388 

11,700,890 

Africa  

.  .  29,758,100 

1,057,400 

11,373,000 

17,327,700 

Totals 

130,933,570 

17,368,117 

13,521,942 

67,620,039 

32,423,472 

Percent  .  . 

100.00 

13.3 

10.3 

51.6 

24.8 

As  some  guide  to  the  extent  of  our  present  knowledge,  it  may 
be  noted  that  the  areas  included  in  group  A  comprise  practically 
all  of  Europe,  the  United  States,  Cuba  and  Japan;  and  that  group 
B  includes  the  Balkan  States,  Newfoundland,  Brazil,  Mexico, 
Algeria,  Tunis,  New  South  Wales,  Victoria,  Corea  and  New 
Zealand.  Canada,  Central  America,  all  of  South  America  except 
Brazil,  and  almost  all  of  Asia,  Australia  and  eastern  Africa  are 
included  in  group  C.  Much  of  China  and  Thibet,  central  and 
western  Africa,  and  Alaska  are  among  the  utterly  unknown 
regions  not  included  in  the  inquiry.  The  effect  of  this  limitation 
of  existing  knowledge  on  the  actual  distribution  of  probable  ore 
reserves  will  be  referred  to  again. 

A  further  distinction  was  made  in  the  individual  reports,  as  to 
the  probable  commercial  importance  of  the  various  ore  fields. 
This  distinction  is  difficult  to  make  when  only  a  few  fields  are 
compared;  and  it  becomes  increasingly  difficult  to  maintain  it 
when  the  scope  of  the  inquiry  is  broadened  to  cover  the  entire 
world.  In  summarizing  the  reports  Sjogren  uses  the  terms 
" actual  reserves"  and  " potential  reserves"  without  definite 
explanation;  but  with  a  fairly  steady  line  of  division.  The  actual 
reserves  seem  to  include  the  ore  tonnages  occurring  in  fields  which 
are  now  being  worked  commercially;  the  potential  reserves  in- 
clude unworked  fields,  and  in  a  few  instances,  the  lower  grade  or 
deeper  ores  of  worked  fields. 


384 


IRON  ORES 


SUMMARY  OF  WORLD'S  IRON-ORE  RESERVES  (SJO'GREN) 


Actual 

reserves 

Potential 

reserves 

Iron  ores, 
metric  tons 

Metallic  iron 
contained, 
metric  tons 

Iron  ores, 
metric  tons 

Metallic  iron 
contained, 
metric  tons 

Europe  

12,032,000,000 

4,733,000,000 

41,029,000,000 

12,085,000,000 

America  

9,855,000,000 

5,154,000,000 

81,822,000,000 

40,731,000,000 

136,000,000 

74,000,000 

69,000,000 

37,000  000 

Asia 

260,000,000 

156,000,000 

457,000,000 

283,000,000 

Africa  

125,000,000 

75,000,000 

Many  billions 

Many  billions 

World  totals  

22,408,000,000 

10,192,000,000 

123,377,000,000 

53,136,000,000 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  final  report  of  the  International  Geologic 
Congress  was  fairly  representative  of  the  state  of  knowledge  re- 
garding iron-ore  reserves  at  its  date  of  issue,  though  there  were 
wide  differences  in  the  value  of  different  sections  of  the  report. 
Even  at  the  time  of  its  publication,  therefore,  there  were  several 
points  to  which  attention  might  profitably  have  been  called;  and 
the  desirability  of  some  further  discussion  of  the  subject  has 
increased  since  then.  There  have  of  course  been  very  obvious 
reasons  against  publishing  any  critical  and  detailed  discussion 
of  the  question  of  ore  reserves  so  long  as  that  question  was  a 
matter  of  current  political  and  legal  importance,  but  with  the 
progress  of  the  dissolution  suit  these  objections  have  disappeared. 

In  the  following  sections  an  attempt  is  made  to  summarize,  in 
convenient  form,  the  chief  facts  relative  to  the  ore  supplies  of  the 
world  as  they  are  now  known,  with  particular  reference  to  those 
of  North  America,  South  America  and  Europe,  which  are  elements 
in  the  competitive  steel  industry  of  the  world,  as  that  industry  is 
now  developed.  During  the  past  few  years,  active  exploration 
and  development,  by  many  different  corporations  and  individu- 
als, have  greatly  increased  our  knowledge  of  the  iron-ore  deposits 
of  North  and  South  America  at  least,  and  have  made  it  possible  to 
substitute  somewhat  more  definite  figures  for  certain  of  the  less 
definite  portions  of  the  International  report  of  1910.  The  present 
discussion  is  offered  as  a  suggestion  along  the  lines  which 
have  been  noted,  rather  than  as  a  final  analysis  of  the  subject,  for 
as  will  be  seen  there  are  still  notable  gaps  even  in  our  knowledge 
of  the  ore  deposits  of  the  two  Americas;  and  with  regard  to  Asia 
Africa  and  Australia  the  data  are  too  incomplete  to  be  more  than 
suggestive.  It  will  be  understood,  of  course,  that  in  preparing 
this  summary  I  have  made  free  use,  not  only  of  my  own  results 


THE  I  RON -ORE  RESERVES  OF  THE  WORLD     385 

in  the  districts  which  I  have  studied,  but  of  all  available  sources 
of  information  bearing  on  these  and  other  districts. 

ORE  RESERVES  OF  NORTH  AMERICA 

In  one  of  the  preceding  tables  it  is  stated  that  the  International 
estimate  credited  almost  ten  thousand  million  tons  to  North 
America.  This  total  was  made  up  as  folllows: 

Country  or  district  Ore  tonnage 

Newfoundland 3,635,000,000 

Canada no  data 

United  States: 

Lake  Superior 3,500,000,000 

Clinton  ores , 505,300,000 

Miscellaneous  ores 252,500,000 

Mexico 55,000,000 

Cuba 1,903,000,000 

Total,  North  America 9,850,800,000 

The  total  reserve  credited  to  the  United  States,  something  over 
four  billion  tons,  was  thus  less  than  that  determined  by  Hayes 
some  years  previously.  The  difference  is  largely  due  to  the  fact 
that  in  the  International  estimate  no  portion  of  the  Texan  or 
Adirondack  tonnages  are  credited  to  actual  reserves,  all  being 
placed  in  the  class  of  potential  reserves.  The  entire  omission  of 
Canadian  ores  from  the  estimate  was  due  to  lack  of  really  definite 
data  on  the  subject.  The  estimate  given  for  the  Clinton  ores  of 
the  United  States  is  far  too  low — one  company  alone  owns  as 
much  as  that;  and  a  single  mine  property  in  the  Russell ville 
region  will  account  for  all  of  the  45  million  tons  credited  to  the 
" Mississippi  Valley"  region.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Lake  fig- 
ures are  relatively  too  high  though  actually  they  may  be  low  enough. 
The  Newfoundland  figure,  curiously  enough,  though  based  on 
entirely  incorrect  data,  is  very  close  to  later  results  in  its  total. 

In  view  of  later  developments  in  some  of  the  North  American 
districts,  and  of  the  more  exact  information  now  available  for 
others,  it  will  be  of  interest  to  attempt  an  estimate  on  a  more 
uniform  basis  than  was  possible  several  years  ago.  The  data 
available  regarding  the  ore  deposits  of  the  Lake  Superior  district 
have  not  changed  materially,  but  in  some  of  the  other  regions 
extensive  prospecting  and  development  work  has  given  a  far 
more  definite  basis  for  tonnage  estimates  than  was  at  hand  until 
recently.  As  will  be  seen,  however,  there  are  still  numerous  ore 

25 


386  IRON  ORES 

districts  and  areas  where  the  data  for  estimates  are  still  too  in- 
complete to  allow  more  than  a  statement  as  to  proven  tonnage, 
and  a  guess  as  to  possibilities.  One  of  these  practically  unknown 
areas  happens  to  be  the  country  first  to  be  discussed. 

Dominion  of  Canada. — It  is  still  difficult  to  make  any  estimate 
as  to  the  iron-ore  reserves  of  Canada,  even  in  an  approximate  way. 
The  known  ore  deposits  of  the  Dominion  are  widely  scattered 
over  a  very  large  area,  and  differ  greatly  in  type.  The  inter- 
vening areas  are,  in  many  cases,  little  known. 

At  present,  it  can  be  said  that  any  attempt  to  estimate  the  ore 
reserves  must  take  account  of  certain  tonnages  of  sedimentary 
hematite  ores  in  Nova  Scotia;  of  a  group  of  fairly  large  magnetite 
deposits  in  New  Brunswick;  of  a  number  of  smaller  scattered 
magnetite  bodies  in  Quebec  and  eastern  Ontario;  of  some  devel- 
opments in  the  Canadian  portion  of  the  Lake  Superior  district; 
and  of  a  series  of  contact  deposits  along  the  Pacific  coast. 

Of  the  ores  named,  pretty  close  estimates  can  now  be  made  for 
those  in  Nova  Scotia,  New  Brunswick  and  British  Columbia; 
while  the  Quebec  and  Ontario  tonnages  can  not  be  approximated 
very  closely.  Taken  as  a  whole,  it  is  probable  that  even  the 
most  conservative  figuring  would  credit  the  Dominion  with  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  million  tons  of  known  and  partly  developed 
iron  ores;  while  a  more  enthusiastic  view  of  the  Lake  ranges 
might  increase  this  estimate,  heavily.  For  our  present  purposes, 
the  lower  figure  named  will  be  accepted. 

Newfoundland. — In  turning  to  the  adjoining  colony,  we  meet 
an  entirely  different  situation,  for  Newfoundland  possesses  what 
is  probably  the  largest  ore  tonnage  in  small  area  anywhere  in  the 
world.  To  add  to  its  interest,  this  large  reserve  is  almost  entirely 
submarine. 

The  known  and  developed  ores  of  Newfoundland  are  found  in 
the  southeast  portion  of  the  island,  and  occur  as  ,a  series  of 
sedimentary  beds,  in  rocks  of  early  Ordovician  age.  They  agree 
in  origin  with  our  own  Clinton  or  red  ores,  but  are  of  somewhat 
earlier  geologic  age.  About  a  dozen  ore  beds  have  been  located 
and  described  in  various  reports,  but  three  of  these  are  workable. 
These  three  workable  beds  give  an  aggregate  average  thickness 
of  ore  of  close  to  30  feet.  The  ore  is  a  very  dense  red  hematite, 
grading  52  or  over  in  iron,  and  the  tonnage  per  square  mile  of  ore 
territory  is  therefore  very  heavy. 


THE  I  RON -ORE  RESERVES  OF  THE  WORLD     387 

The  ore  beds  and  their  associated  rocks  occur  in  a  trough  or 
basin.  The  southwestern  end  of  this  trough  outcrops  on  Bell 
Island,  from  which  the  rocks  and  ore  beds  dip  northwardly  under 
the  waters  of  Conception  bay.  The  accompanying  sketch  map 
will  serve  to  give  some  idea  of  the  surroundings  and  geology  of  the 
entire  area  involved  in  the  question  of  reserve  tonnages. 

Geologic  studies  give  reason  to  suppose  that  the  ore  beds  con- 
tinue northwardly,  about  as  shown  on  the  map.  If  we  assume 
that  they  can  be  worked  as  far  out  as  Cape  St.  Francis,  the  ore 
trough  up  to  that  point  might  contain  some  ten  billion  tons  of  ore. 
A  certain  portion  of  this  area  will  be  difficult  to  work;  and  in  the 
worked  portion  heavy  allowance  must  be  made  for  ore  left  to 
support  the  roof.  Discounting  for  these  factors,  we  may  fairly 
assume  that  the  Wabana  trough  contains  some  four  thousand 
million  tons  of  recoverable  ore.  About  half  of  this  tonnage  is 
controlled  by  the  Nova  Scotia  Steel  &  Coal  Co. 

United  States. — With  regard  to  the  iron- ore  reserves  of  the 
United  States,  there  are  available  a  number  of  different  recent 
estimates,  differing  little  as  to  the  facts  of  the  case,  but  made  on 
different  bases  as  to  grades  and  commercial  conditions.  An 
estimate  which  I  prepared  a  year  or  so  ago  and  which  is  given  in 
detail  in  Chapter  XXVII  of  the  present  volume  seems  to  fit  in  best 
with  our  present  purposes.  It  is  as  follows : 

RESERVE  TONNAGES,  UNITED  STATES 
District  Minimum  Maximum 

Lake  Superior  region , 2,000,000,000  2,500,000,000 

Southern  red  ores 1,500,000,000  2,000,000,000 

Texas  brown  ores 600,000,000  1,000,000,000 

Other  southern  ores 500,000,000  750,000,000 

Northeastern   states 300,000,000  600,000,000 

Western   states 300,000,000  700,000,000 

Total  U.  S ^200,000,000  7,550,000,000 

To  this  estimate  as  originally  made,  was  added  the  note  that  it 
included  only  ores  of  present-day  commercial  grade — such  ores 
as  are  now  used  during  years  of  business  prosperity.  It  does  not 
include  the  enormous  reserves  of  very  low-grade  red  ore  in  the 
south,  or  the  low-grade  siliceous  ores  of  the  Lake  region.  The 
minimum  figures  in  each  case  represent  the  lowest  estimate  which 
anyone,  writing  today,  could  possibly  credit  to  the  various  dis- 
tricts. The  higher  figures  represent  the  tonnages  which  may 
fairly  be  hoped  for  and  are,  in  my  opinion,  the  closer  to  the  truth. 


388  IRON  ORES 

For  the  purposes  of  the  present  chapter,  the  maximum  figures  may 
be  accepted  tentatively.  The  Texas  maximum  might  be  de- 
creased somewhat;  on  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  other  southern 
ore  tonnages  might  be  increased. 

Cuba. — The  high-grade  hematites  which  formed  the  original 
source  of  Cuban  ore  shipments  are  derived  from  a  series  of  depos- 
its on  the  south  coast,  near  Santiago.  These  deposits  are  now 
estimated  to  contain,  according  to  various  engineers,  a  total  of 
from  five  to  eight  million  tons  of  ore.  Similar  ores  occur  else- 
where in  Cuba,  as  well  as  in  Porto  Rico;  but  no  large  additional 
tonnage  can  be  credited  to  them. 

With  regard  to  the  brown-ore  deposits  which  fringe  the  eastern 
portion  of  the  north  coast  of  Cuba,  the  situation  as  regards  re- 
serve tonnages  is  very  different.  These  brown  ores  cover  exten- 
sive areas,  and  the  deposits  are  fairly  regular  in  thickness,  char- 
acter, etc.  Current  estimates  from  various  sources  agree  closely 
in  placing  the  total  known  tonnage  of  crude  ore  at  about  three 
thousand  million  tons.  This  corresponds  to  approximately  two 
thousand  million  tons  of  dried  commercial  ore,  but  in  the  present 
discussion  the  crude  ore  figures  will  be  used  and  the  necessary 
correction  can  be  made  by  using  also  the  crude  ore  average  grade, 
say  35  percent  natural. 

Mexico,  Etc. — From  Mexico  and  Central  America,  we  receive, 
at  frequent  intervals,  very  enthusiastic  estimates  of  new  or  well- 
known  iron- ore  deposits.  Unfortunately,  when  traced  down, 
almost  all  of  these  Mexican  and  Central  American  iron  ores  appear 
to  be  found  either  as  contact  deposits  or  as  ordinary  gossan  ores. 
In  either  case,  tonnage  estimates  are  likely  to  be  made  too  high, 
owing  to  the  excellent  appearance  which  ore  deposits  of  these  types 
present  at  the  surface.  The  tonnages  actually  known  to  exist 
in  Mexico  and  Central  America  might  perhaps  be  placed  at  fifty 
million  at  least;  more  optimistic  estimates  might  run  as  high  as 
one  hundred  million. 

ORE  RESERVES  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA 

In  attempting  to  appraise  the  iron-ore  reserves  of  South  Amer- 
ica, it  is  best  to  realize,  at  the  outset,  that  enormous  areas  of 
that  continent  are  still  practically  unknown,  so  far  as  their  ore 
possibilities  are  concerned.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  very 
satisfactory  knowledge  of  the  reserve  tonnages  of  certain  limited 


THE  I  RON -ORE  RESERVES  OF  THE  WORLD     389 

areas;  and  one  of  these  areas  happens  to  contain  the  largest 
known  'tonnage  of  high-grade  ore  in  the  world.  Under  these 
circumstances  it  is  possible  to  summarize  the  existing  state  of 
knowledge  with  fairly  definite  results,  even  while  admitting  that 
there  are  obVious  gaps  in  that  knowledge. 

For  geological  as  well  as  geographical  reasons,  it  would  be 
advisable  to  separate  the  South  American  ores  into  three  groups, 
but  because  of  the  various  company  interests  involved,  this  will 
not  be  done  at  present.  The  ores  of  the  north  and  west  coasts 
will  be  grouped  together;  while  those  of  the  Brazilian  area  will  be 
discussed  separately. 

Brazil. — The  existence  of  large  iron-ore  deposits  in  Brazil  has 
been  known  for  many  years,  but  it  is  only  within  the  past  few 
years  that  these  deposits  have  given  promise  of  becoming  active 
factors  in  the  ore  industry  of  the  world.  Their  grade  and  tonnage 
are  such  as  to  overcome  disadvantages  of  location. 

The  Brazilian  ores  which  require  consideration  at  present  are 
located  in  the  state  of  Minas  Geraes,  and  outcrop  over  extensive 
areas.  They  are  hematites,  high  in  iron  and  normally  low  in 
phosphorus.  The  deposits  have  been  examined  by  many  geolo- 
gists and  mining  engineers — among  whom  may  be  mentioned 
Harder,  Merriam,  Chambers,  Leith  and  Kilburn  Scott;  and  there 
is  substantial  unity  of  opinion  as  to  their  main  features. 

As  to  origin,  the  Brazilian  ores  are  regarded  as  sedimentary, 
occurring  in  original  bedded  deposits,  with  no  trace  of  the 
secondary  concentration  which  has  been  so  effective  in  the  Lake 
Superior  region.  As  to  tonnage,  estimates  by  Merriam  and 
Leith  would  justify  the  assumption  that  some  7500  billion  tons 
of  ore  exist,  of  which  perhaps  half  will  grade  over  64  or  65  percent 
metallic  iron,  and  with  phosphorus  below  the  Bessemer  limit. 
The  remainder  will  grade  between  55  and  65  percent  iron. 

The  industrial  significance  of  these  figures  as  to  grade  and 
reserve  tonnage  requires  little  comment.  The  tonnage  cited  is 
three  times  that  credited  to  the  Lake  Superior  region;  the  average 
grade  is  that  of  ore  which  at  one  time  existed  on  the  lakes,  but 
which  has  disappeared  from  circulation. 

Venezuela,  Chile,  Etc. — It  is  highly  probable  that  in  future  large 
deposits  of  residual  brown  ores,  similar  to  those  of  the  north 
coast  of  Cuba,  will  be  located  in  South  America,  but  at  present 
the  known  ore  deposits,  outside  those  of  Brazil,  are  of  two  differ- 


390  IRON  ORES 

ent  types.  In  Chile,  and  for  that  matter  all  along  the  west  coast 
of  South  America,  there  are  a  number  of  deposits  of  high-grade 
ores,  often  mixed  magnetite  and  hematite,  and  apparently  similar 
in  origin  and  character  to  the  contact  deposits  of  Mexico  and 
British  Columbia.  Some  of  the  known  deposits  of  Venezuela,  on 
the  other  hand,  appear  to  be  more  closely  allied  to  the  magnetite 
deposits  of  the  Adirondacks  and  other  portions  of  the  eastern 
United  States. 

Taking  the  Venezuelan  and  Chilean  deposits  together,  it  seems 
probable  that  two  hundred  million  tons  would  be  a  fair  estimate 
of  the  ore  which  has  been  prospected  and  partly  developed  to 
date.  There  are,  of  course,  large  possibilities  in  excess  of  this 
tonnage,  but  on  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  deposits  are  of  a  type 
whose  tonnage  it  is  particularly  easy  to  overestimate.  A  maxi- 
mum estimate,  to  cover  probable  development,  might  run  as 
high  as  five  hundred  million  tons  for  the  ores  of  the  northern  and 
western  portions  of  South  America. 

ORE  RESERVES  OF  EUROPE 

The  International  Report  of  1910  contained  very  detailed 
descriptions  of  the  iron-ore  resources  of  each  of  the  European 
countries,  with  estimates  of  their  ore  reserves,  both  actual  and 
potential.  It  would  be  absurd  for  the  present  writer  to  attempt 
any  revision  of  these  estimates,  and  they  will  be  accepted  exactly 
as  presented  in  the  International  report,  so  far  as  the  tonnages 
are  concerned.  In  order  to  facilitate  reference,  however,  some 
rearrangement  has  been  made  with  regard  to  the  order  and  group- 
ing of  the  various  countries. 

§RE  RESERVES  OF  EUROPEAN  COUNTRIES  (REARRANGED  FROM 
GREN).    ALL  QUANTITIES  STATED  IN  MILLIONS  OF  METRIC  TONS 
Actual  reserves  Potential  reserves 

Metalic  Metalic 

Iron  ore  iron  Iron  ore  iron 

content  content 

Germany  and  Luxembourg. .  3878  1360  Considerable  Considerable 

France 3300  1140  

Norway  and  Sweden 1525  864  1723  630 

Great  Britain 1300  455  37,700  10,830 

Russia  (inc.  Finland) 865  387  1101  441 

Spain  and  Portugal 711  349  75  39 

Austro-Hungary,  Bosnia ....  284  104  424  142 

Greece 100  45  

Belgium 62  25  

Italy,  Switzerland 8  4  4  2 

Total  Europe 12,032      4,733  over  41,000  over  12,000 


THE  IRON-ORE  RESERVES  OF  THE  WORLD     391 

THE  WORLD'S  IRON-ORE  RESERVES 

When  we  turn  from  the  New  World  to  the  Old,  we  find  that 
only  one  of  the  older  continents  has  been  sufficiently  examined 
to  permit  even  an  approximate  estimate  of  its  iron-ore  resources. 
In  view  of  the  scanty  information  available  concerning  the 
greater  portions  of  Asia,  Africa  and  Australia,  it  would  be  folly 
to  add  their  small  known  reserves  to  the  fairly  well-determined 
reserves  of  Europe  and  the  two  Americas — and  then  call  the 
result  a  world  total.  It  will  be  far  better  to  omit  the  three  un- 
known continents  from  the  total,  in  which  case  the  result  ob- 
tained will  be  substantially  an  estimate  of  that  portion  of  the 
world's  iron-ore  reserve  which  is  tributary  to  the  Atlantic  basin. 

TOTAL  KNOWN  ORE  RESERVES 

Continent  Actual  ore  tonnage       Equiv't  tons 

"  metallic  iron 

North  America 14,760,000,000  6,455,000,000 

South  America 8,000,000,000   5,000.000,000 

Europe 12,032,000,000   4,733,000,000 


Total 34,792,000,000   16,188,000,000 

We  arrive,  therefore,  at  the  comfortable  total  of  almost  35 
billion  tons  of  ore,  equivalent  to  16  billion  tons  of  metallic  iron, 
as  being  known  to  exist  on  three  of  the  continents.  All  of  this 
ore  is  of  present-day  commercial  grade;  and  much  of  it  is  of 
Bessemer  type. 

As  against  this  total  known  reserve  of  commercial  ore,  we  may 
set  the  fact  that  the  world  is  now  making  pig  metal  at  the  rate 
of  some  65  million  tons  a  year.  On  this  basis,  the  known  supply 
is  sufficient  to  last  over  two  hundred  years  more.  If  the  world's 
ore  requirements  increase  steadily  in  the  future,  there  are  still 
three  unknown  continents  to  draw  from;  and  a  vast  tonnage  of 
low-grade  ores,  not  above  considered,  on  the  three  continents 
which  have  been  considered. 

An  actual  ore  scarcity  can,  therefore,  hardly  be  taken  seriously. 
On  the  other  hand,  as  profits  in  the  iron  business  decrease,  the 
location  of  the  various  ore  deposits  becomes  of  far  more  impor- 
tance than  it  has  been  in  the  past.  Every  ton  of  ore  included  in 
the  preceding  estimates  can  be  mined,  concentrated  when  neces- 
sary, and  shipped  to  some  large  existing  furnace  district  at  a  total 
cost  of  not  over  ten  cents  per  unit.  This  is  not  an  impossible 
figure  for  the  furnaces  to  pay,  and  it  means  that  the  securing  of 


392  IRON  ORES 

anything  approaching  a  monopoly,  on  a  tonnage  basis,  is  impos- 
sible. But  there  are  very  large  tonnages  which  can  reach  smelt- 
ing centers  at  costs  of  four,  or  five,  or  six  cents  per  unit — and  these 
more  favorably  located  ores  will  become  of  increasing  relative 
importance  as  time  goes  on. 

Probable  Future  Discoveries. — In  estimating  the  known  ore 
reserves  of  the  world,  it  was  noted  that  the  data  with  regard  to 
Asia,  Africa  and  Australia  are  so  fragmentary  and  incomplete 
that  it  was  not  worth  while  making  use  of  them.  There  are  ob- 
viously very  great  gaps  in  our  knowledge  of  the  iron-ore  resources 
of  the  world,  and  it  will  be  of  interest  to  make  some  estimate  as 
to  the  results  which  are  likely  to  be  attained  when  these  gaps  are 
filled — i.e.,  when  our  knowledge  of  the  ore  reserves  of  Asia, 
Africa  and  Australia  reaches  the  same  degree  of  completeness  as 
our  present  knowledge  of  the  iron  resources  of  the  Americas  and 
Europe.  Thanks  to  a  method  suggested  and  used  by  Professor 
Sjogren,  it  is  possible  to  do  this  with  some  degree  of  exactness. 
The  Sjogren  method  will  be  followed,  but  it  will  be  applied  to  the 
revised  estimates  of  American  tonnage  which  have  been  discussed 
in  the  earlier  part  of  this  chapter. 

If  we  assume  that  the  ore  resources  of  Europe  and  of  the  two 
Americas  are  fairly  well  known  now — and  so  far  as  commercially 
usable  ores  are  concerned  this  is  more  nearly  the  case  than  is 
commonly  thought — we  can  use  this  assumption  as  the  basis 
for  reasoning  concerning  the  probable  reserves  of  the  three 
unknown  continents. 

This  reasoning  will  involve  the  further  assumption,  which  is 
correct  enough  for  all  practical  purposes — that  if  very  large  land 
areas  be  compared,  their  iron-ore  reserves  are  likely  to  be  in 
proportion  to  the  areas.  It  is  clear  that,  given  some  knowledge 
of  the  geologic  principles  and  causes  which  are  involved  in  the 
formation  of  iron-ore  deposits,  we  are  warranted  in  extending 
our  reasoning  from  the  known  to  the  unknown  continents. 

The  ultimate  basis  for  our  work  must  be  the  following  relations : 


Continent 

North  America   .          .      . 

Reserve  tonnage 

14,760,000,000 

Area, 
square  miles 

8,626,000 

Tons  per 
square  mile 

1710 

South  America 

8  000  000  000 

6,837,000 

1170 

Europe 

12  032  000  000 

3  850  000 

3140 

Total  and  average 34,792,000,000     19,313,000         1790 


THE  IRON -ORE  RESERVES  OF  THE  WORLD     393 

The  average  for  the  three  continents  falls,  it  will  be  noted,  at 
about  the  North  American  ton-mile  factor.  Assuming  that  this 
same  figure  will  fairly  represent  the  ore-bearing  probabilities  of 
the  three  unknown  continents,  we  have  the  following  results: 

Continent  Area.',         toSSSS?    Estimated  probable 

square  miles        factor  reserve  tonnage 


Asia  

17,256,000 

1790 

30,890,000,000 

Africa  
Australia  

11,509,000 
2,947,000 

1790 
1790 

20,600,000,000 
5,270,000,000 

Total  probable  reserv 
Total  reserves  known 

es  unknown 
continents  . 

continents  .  .  . 

.    56,760,000,000 
34,792,000,000 

Probable  world  reserves,  commercial  ore 91,552,000,000 

Of  course  this  amazing  total  is  merely  an  arithmetical  quantity, 
and  as  such  subject  to  any  errors  which  may  have  been  introduced 
in  the  data  and  assumptions  employed.  But  it  may  fairly  be 
assumed  that  it  does,  in  this  case,  come  as  close  to  representing 
the  real  probabilities  as  to  the  world's  total  reserve  of  commercial 
ore  as  does  any  other  method  now  available.  Concerning  the 
result  itself,  little  need  be  said.  It  effectually  disposes  of  some 
of  the  more  hysterical  statements  which  have  been  made  about 
impending  iron  scarcity. 

The  Duration  of  the  World's  Ore  Supplies. — In  discussing 
the  duration  of  American  iron  ore  reserves  (Chapter  XXVIII), 
it  has  been  noted  that  during  the  past  decade  the  question  of 
their  possible  early  exhaustion  has  been  brought  to  the  front  by  a 
number  of  writers  and  legislators.  In  that  chapter  the  matter 
was  discussed  solely  as  a  local  problem,  but  the  general  question 
of  ore  exhaustion  can  now  be  taken  up  in  the  light  of  the  data 
presented  on  earlier  pages  of  the  present  chapter. 

In  1910  the  entire  iron-ore  production  of  the  world  amounted, 
in  round  figures,  to  142  million  tons.  The  known  supply  of 
commercial  ores  is  placed  in  an  earlier  table,  at  some  35,000 
million  tons;  and  I  have  noted  that  this  is  limited  to  three  con- 
tinents. The  probable  supply  of  commercial  ores  in  the  world 
has  also  been  calculated  above  as  about  91  thousand  million 
tons.  With  these  data  in  hand,  as  a  basis,  we  may  take  up  the 
probable  duration  of  these  deposits. 

By  reference  to  detailed  statistics  covering  the  past  growth  of 
the  world's  iron  and  steel  industry,  it  will  be  found  that  for  a 


394  IRON  ORES 

century  the  iron  output  has  increased  at  a  rate  of  slightly  over 
50  percent  each  decade.  It  may  also  be  noted  that  in  the  opin- 
ion of  the  present  writer  this  rate  of  growth  is  likely  to  continue 
for  a  few  decades  more.  For  our  present  purposes  we  might  be 
safe  in  assuming  that  the  pig-iron  output  and  ore  requirements  of 
the  world,  during  the  next  few  decades,  will  be  about  as  follows: 

Annual  Annual 

Year  pig  output,  ore  requirements, 

tons  tons 

1910  65,000,000  142,000,000 

1920  100,000,000  250,000,000 

1930  150,000,000  375,000,000 

1940  200,000,000  500,000,000 

1950  250,000,000  625,000,000 

Using  these  figures,  it  will  be  seen  that  between  1910  and  1950 
the  total  iron-ore  requirements  might  reach  the  aggregate  of 
15,000  million  tons.  This  is  about  one-half  of  the  known  ores 
of  commercial  grade;  it  is  less  than  one-sixth  of  the  probable  ore 
tonnage  of  the  world;  and  it  would  be  an  unimportant  fraction  of 
the  ore  that  would  be  available  if  we  lowered  our  standards  much 
below  present-day  commercial  grades. 

The  final  conclusions  which  may  be  accepted  as  being  derived 
from  this  study  of  the  iron-ore  reserves  of  the  world  are  as  follows : 

1.  Even  admitting  that  the  world's  supply  of  pig  iron  will 
always  be  produced  by  charging  relatively  crude  ores  into  a  fur- 
nace, the  supply  of  ore  of  strictly  present-day  commercial  grade 
will  last  for  considerably  over  a  century. 

2.  If,   without    improving    manufacturing    or    concentrating 
methods,  we  simply  assume  that  pig  iron  will  rise  in  price  a  few 
dollars — say  an  average  of  $20  per  ton  in  place  of  an  average  of 
about  $14  per  ton — this  rise  in  price  will  admit  to  use  ten  times  as 
much  ore  as  is  now  considered  available. 

3.  But  in  speaking  thus  confidently  of  the  world's  supply  of 
metal,  we  must  not  forget  that  local  supplies  will  give  out,  even 
though  a  large  total  still  remains  elsewhere  in  the  world.     We 
may  therefore  expect  great  shifts  in  manufacturing  centers  to 
occur  in  the  future,  as  they  have  in  the  past. 

4.  Coincident  with  the  growing  scarcity  of  local  ore  supplies  in 
some  countries  now  important  in  the  iron  industry  will  come 
changes  in  fuel  conditions,  in  distribution  of  population,  and  in 


THE  IRON-ORE  RESERVES  OF  THE  WORLD     395 

market  areas;  all  of  which  will  aid  in  causing  a  redistribution  of 
manufacturing  centers. 

Grade  and  Phosphorus  Content. — Several  points  remain  to  be 
considered,  bearing  upon  the  amount  of  high-grade  and  of  low- 
phosphorus  ores  available  in  the  known  ore  reserves  of  the  world. 
This  is  a  matter  of  particular  interest,  and  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  summarized  in  the  International  report  with  sufficient 
allowance  for  recent  developments.  A  table  covering  this  matter, 
quoted  from  the  report  in  question,  follows: 

CHIEF  ORE  RESERVES  ORE  60  PERCENT  IRON  (1910  REPORT) 

Reserves 

Country  high-grade 

ore 

Russia 99,000,000 

Sweden 1,095,000,000 

Mexico 55,000,000 

Cuba 3,000,000 

Australia 49,000,000 


Total  world  reserve 1,301,000,000 

Concerning  this  question  Sjogren  remarks: 

"From  the  table  it  is  evident  that  about  four-fifths  of  the  known  and 
recorded  rich  iron  ores  come  in  the  deposits  of  northern  Sweden.  The 
high-grade  ores,  such  as  for  example  Kirunavaara,  will  therefore  in 
future  be  very  much  in  demand  and  the  possession  of  such  ore  resources 
will  form  a  decisive  factor  in  the  competition  in  the  market  of  the 
world." 

As  opposed  to  this  point  of  view,  it  may  be  suggested  that  the 
Brazilian  ores,  present  in  enormous  tonnage,  far  outclass  those  of 
Scandinavia  both  in  iron  content  and  in  their  freedom  from 
phosphorus.  With  a  certain  hesitancy,  due  to  other  factors,  the 
same  thing  might  be  said  of  the  Chilean  ores. 

Perhaps  a  fair  statement  of  the  case  would  be  somewhat  along 
the  following  lines.  It  is  not  true  that  ores  suitable  for  the  acid 
Bessemer  and  even  the  acid  open-hearth  processes  are  scarce; 
on  the  contrary  they  are  now  known  to  be  very  abundant.  So 
far  as  quantity  is  concerned,  there  is  no  difficulty  whatever. 
But  we  must  admit  that  most  of  these  very  low-phosphorus  ores 
are  very  inconveniently  located,  so  far  as  existing  or  probable 
steel  centers  are  concerned;  and  this  means'  that  ores  for  either 
acid  Bessemer  or  acid  open  hearth  are  likely  to  be  dearer  in  future 


396  IRON  ORES 

than  they  are  now.  As  against  this  fact,  we  have  to  set  the 
condition  that,  so  far  as  one  can  judge,  both  the  processes  named 
are  on  the  wane,  relatively  to  other  processes.  The  absolute 
necessity  for  a  low-phosphorus  ore  is  therefore  disappearing, 
though  its  desirability  still  remains,  in  any  normal  basic  open- 
hearth  practice. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  account  is  to  be  set  the  fact  that  the 
basic  Bessemer  process,  which  requires  very  high-phosphorus 
ores,  has  a  far  smaller  visible  supply  than  has  the  acid  Bessemer. 
Newfoundland  and  Middlesboro  supply  an  ore  which  is  a  shade 
low  in  phosphorus  for  good  basic  Bessemer  practice;  and  the 
Lorraine  region  is  the  only  one  where  cheapness  and  high  phos- 
phorus content  go  together.  The  only  other  possibility,  the  use 
of  magnetites  of  extreme  high-phosphorus  type,  does  not  offer 
much  consolation  so  far  as  the  chance  of  securing  large  tonnages 
at  low  cost  is  concerned.  As  the  world's  steel  trade  stands  to-day, 
there  would  be  more  real  interest  in  the  discovery  on  any  coast  of 
a  large  ore-body  carrying  2  percent  phosphorus  than  in  the 
discovery  of  a  Bessemer  ore-body. 

The  Possibility  of  Metallurgic  Improvements. — The  preceding 
discussion  of  the  probable  duration  of  the  world's  iron  ore  reserves 
is  based  on  the  assumption  that  the  iron  and  steel  to  be  produced 
in  the  future  will  be  made  in  substantially  the  same  manner  as  the 
bulk  of  the  tonnage  is  now  produced.  It  has  been  concluded  that 
even  on  this  assumption,  the  ore  supply  of  the  world  is  in  no  im- 
mediate danger  of  exhaustion.  But  there  are  always  the  possi- 
bilities that  present  processes  will  be  greatly  improved,  or  that 
entirely  new  processes  will  attain  importance;  and  these  possibili- 
ties require  some  consideration  in  the  present  connection. 

In  describing  the  operation  of  the  blast  furnace  (pp.  142-148)  it 
was  said  that  the  existing  furnace  is  a  very  efficient  machine,  and 
that  the  possibilities  of  its  improvement  are  comparatively  small. 
All  this  is  true  enough,  for  the  blast  furnace  does  convert  its 
charge  into  pig  iron  in  a  very  economical  way;  and  if  we  start 
with  a  given  quantity  and  grade  of  ore  and  coke,  it  is  probable 
that  no  more  efficient  way  of  converting  the  ore  into  pig  can  be 
found  than  by  its  smelting  in  a  blast-furnace.  But  this  very 
statement  of  the  case  indicates  the  inherent  limitations  of  the 
present  day  process,  and  supplies  a  suggestion  as  to  the  possible 
changes  which  the  future  may  bring  forth.  The  blast  furnace  is 


THE  I  RON -ORE  RESERVES  OF  THE  WORLD     397 

an  efficient  machine;  but  it  requires  a  rather  expensive  source  of 
heat  and  an  ore  charge  of  good  grade.  If,  as  may  be  the  case  at 
some  points  in  the  future,  the  fuels  are  low-grade  and  the  ores 
are  miserably  poor,  the  blast  furnace  can  hardly  be  expected  to 
handle  that  kind  of  charge  economically.  It  is  under  such  con- 
ditions that  entirely  new  metallurgical  methods  may  be  devised 
to  meet  the  changed  circumstances. 

Usually,  in  discussing  possible  change  in  iron  metallurgy,  stress 
is  laid  on  the  possibility  of  using  electric  heat  for  the  smelting  of 
the  ore,  but  it  is  always  assumed  that  the  ore  to  be  used  will  be  of 
substantially  the  same  character  and  grade  as  that  now  charged 
into  the  blast  furnace.  In  an  earlier  chapter  some  reasons  were 
given  for  not  expecting  much  from  the  electric  furnace  in  the  way 
of  producing  ordinary  irons  and  steels  under  existing  conditions; 
and  under  the  conditions  of  our  hypothetical  future  the  electric 
furnace  of  itself  will  be  even  less  effective. 

What  will  be  needed,  in  case  the  world  ever  gets  down  to  using 
such  low-iron  and  high-silica  rocks  as  are  sometimes  discussed  as 
possible  future  ores,  will  be  a  two-stage  process.  In  the  first 
stage,  the  natural  iron  silicate  will  be  converted  into  a  convenient 
iron  salt — a  sulphate,  chloride,  carbonate  or  oxide — and  this  iron 
salt  will  be  freed  from  the  silica  and  other  impurities  of  the 
gangue.  In  the  second  stage  the  practically  pure  iron  salt  will 
be  reduced  to  metallic  iron — and  the  fact  that  slag  will  be  absent 
will  make  a  very  simple  form  of  electric  or  other  furnace  possible. 

So  much  for  the  distant  future,  when  as  some  authorities  fear, 
our  descendants  will  have  to  work  rocks  carrying  20  to  30  per- 
cent iron,  and  40  to  50  percent  silica.  In  the  meantime,  we  may 
safely  assume  that  for  a  long  time  to  come  the  blast  furnace  will 
be  an  essential  feature  of  iron  metallurgy,  and  that  our  handling 
of  ores  will  have  to  be  adapted  to  its  requirements  and  limitations. 
This  implies  that,  as  ore  grades  lower  and  ore  prices  increase, 
much  better  concentrating  methods  will  have  to  be  adopted. 
The  furnaces  of  1950  may  be  running  on  charges  as  good  as  the 
average  of  to-day,  even  though  the  average  grade  of  ore  mined 
will  be  far  lower. 


CHAPTER  XXX 
WORLD  COMPETITION  IN  IRON  AND  STEEL 

In  earlier  chapters  the  growth  of  the  American  iron  and  steel 
industries  have  been  discussed  in  some  detail,  and  in  the  course  of 
this  discussion  reference  was  incidentally  made  to  the  rate  at 
which  the  same  industries  had  progressed  in  competing  countries. 
In  the  present  chapter  this  last  matter  can  be  taken  up  in  more 
detail,  and  some  idea  given  as  to  the  growth  of  the  world's  iron 
and  steel  industries  in  the  past,  of  the  present  status  of  world 
competition  in  those  industries,  and  of  the  probable  form  which 
this  competition  is  likely  to  take  in  the  future.  For  we  can  not 
commit  a  greater  error  than  by  taking  it  for  granted  that  the 
industries  of  the  world  have  reached  a  fixed  or  stable  condition; 
and  on  examining  the  bases  on  which  these  particular  industries 
rest,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  changes  in  relative  importance  are 
likely  to  be  as  serious  in  the  future  as  they  have  been  in  the  past. 
The  nineteenth  century  saw  the  early  development  of  the  British 
iron  trade  to  a  commanding  and  apparently  permanent  leadership; 
but  it  later  saw  the  growth  of  the  American  industries  to  a  still 
more  important  position;  and  toward  its  close  the  remarkable 
growth  of  German  manufactures.  The  twentieth  century  may 
in  turn  see  the  United  States  and  Germany  struggling  for  control 
of  the  world's  markets  in  competition  with  Asiatic  and  perhaps 
African  mills. 

The  Growth  of  the  World's  Iron  Industry,  1800-1910.— The 
manner  and  degree  in  which  the  iron  industry  of  the  world  has 
grown  during  the  past  century  are  well  brought  out  by  the  table 
presented  below.  The  data  used  in  this  table  are  of  various 
degrees  of  accuracy,  according  to  the  dates  and  the  countries.  It 
may  be  assumed  that  prior  to  1850  the  figures,  except  for  Great 
Britain,  are  merely  fair  approximations  to  the  truth;  that  in  later 
years  the  more  general  collection  of  official  statistics  gives  us  an 
increasingly  firm  basis  for  calculation;  and  that  since  1870  the 
only  reasonably  important  producer  whose  output  is  not  defi- 
nitely known  is  China.  But  for  all  practical  purposes,  even 

398 


WORLD  COMPETITION  IN  IRON  AND  STEEL  399 


after  making  allowances  for  the  possible  inaccuracies  of  the  earlier 
years,  the  table  may  be  accepted  as  close  to  the  truth.  It  is,  at 
all  events,  the  first  attempt  to  combine  these  data  over  a  complete 
series  of  years. 

PIG-IRON  PRODUCTION  OF  THE  WORLD,  1800-1911. 
QUANTITIES  GIVEN  IN  MILLIONS  OF  TONS 


H 

|| 

I 

8 

s| 

6 

4 

1 

8 

It 

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1  3 

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11 

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£ 

tf 

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GO 

02 

+3 

6 

1800 

0.06 

0.02 

0.20 

0.06 

0.04 

0.01 

0.02 

0  02 

0.05 

0.48 

1810 

0.06 

0.03 

0.27 

0.09 

0.07 

0.02 

0.03 

0  03 

0.06 

0.66 

1820 

0.02 

0.04 

0.40 

0.14 

0.10 

0.03 

0.04 

0  03 

0.08 

0.88 

1830 

0.16 

0.08 

0.68 

0.27 

0.18 

0.04 

0.06 

0  04 

0.10 

1.61 

1840 

0.29 

0.15 

1.40 

0.35 

0.19 

0.06 

0.10 

0  06 

0.15 

2.75 

1850 

0.56 

0.25 

2.35 

0.41 

0.23 

0.10 

0.14 

0.09 

0.20 

4.33 

1860 

0.82 

0.60 

3.83 

0.90 

0.34 

0.18 

0.32 

0.19 



0.25 

7.43 

1870 

1.67 

1.40 

5.96 

1.18 

0.36 

0.37 

0.56 

0.30 



0<35 

12.15 

1880 

3.84 

2.73 

7.75 

1.73 

0.45 

0.46 

0.61 

0.41 

0.09 

0.02 

0.40 

18.49 

1890 

9.20 

4.66 

7.90 

1.96 

0.93 

0.97 

0.79 

0.02 

0.46 

0.18 

0.01 

0.50 

27.58 

1900 

13.79 

8.38 

8.96 

2.67 

2.85 

1.43 

1.00 

0.09 

0.52 

0.09 

0.65 

40.33 

1910 

27.30 

14.56 

10.01 

3.97 

2.98 

2.01 

1.82 

0.71 

0.59 

0.37 

0.21 

0.60 

65.13 

1911 

23.65 

15.32 

9.53 

4.44 

3.52 

2.09 

2.01 

0.82 

0.62 

0.35 

0.24 

0.80 

61.40 

On  examining  the  preceding  table  it  will  be  seen  that  since 
1900  seven  countries  have  regularly  produced  over  one  million 
tons  per  year  of  pig  iron,  and  that  the  combined  output  of  these 
seven  important  producers  now  is  about  97  percent  of  the  total 
pig-iron  production  of  the  world.  The  seven  are,  in  order  of 
present  output,  the  United  States,  Germany,  Great  Britain, 
France,  Russia,  Austro-Hungary,  and  Belgium.  The  three 
leaders  alone  produced  in  1910  almost  exactly  four-fifths  of  the 
world's  output. 

But  in  addition  to  the  plain  facts  which  it  offers  as  to  past  and 
present  output,  the  table  suggests  several  interesting  lines  of 
inquiry.  It  may  be  asked,  for  example,  what  the  probabilities 
are  as  to  the  future  rate  of  increase  in  this  great  industry,  and 
what  factors  are  likely  to  cause  the  first  slow-down  in  rate  of 
growth.  Then  again,  taking  another  standpoint,  it  may  be 
asked  how  the  output  of  pig  iron  in  any  given  area  bears  on  its 
international  relations,  so  far  as  competition  in  steel  and  finished 
products  is  concerned.  In  the  present  volume  neither  of  these 
questions  can  be  discussed  at  any  great  length,  but  their  impor- 


400  IRON  ORES 

tance  requires  that  at  least  brief  consideration  be  given  to  them 
in  turn. 

The  Rate  of  Growth  of  the  Iron  Industry. — The  first  of  the 
questions  suggested  relates  to  the  probable  future  rate  of  growth 
of  the  iron  industry;  and  as  a  basis  for  hazarding  a  suggestion 
we  must  first  examine  the  history  of  the  past  century  as  set  forth 
in  the  preceding  table. 

When  the  production  in  each  tenth  year  is  summarized,  and 
each  total  compared  with  that  following,  it  is  found  that  the  rela- 
tion shown  is  as  follows: 

RATE  OF  GROWTH  OF  THE  IRON  INDUSTRY,  1800-1910 
Period  Rate  of  increase  Period  Rate  of  increase 

1800-1810  37.5  1860-1870  76.9 

1810-1820  33.3  1870-1880  52.2 

1820-1830  82.8  1880-1890  49.1 

1830-1840  70.8  1890-1900  46.2 

1840-1850  57.4  1900-1910  61.5 

1850-1860  71.6 

For  the  entire  period  since  1800,  the  average  rate  of  increase 
per  decade  is  58.1  percent;  for  the  last  forty  years,  the  rate  is 
52.3  percent.  These  two  figures  correspond  closely  enough  to 
prevent  us  from  assuming  that  the  iron  industry  has  already 
reached  a  stage  where  a  distinct  falling  off  in  the  rate  of  increase 
can  be  observed.  Taken  together,  they  would  seem  to  justify 
the  assumption  that  for  a  few  more  decades  at  least,  the  world's 
output  of  pig  iron  is  likely  to  increase  at  the  rate  of  about  50 
percent  every  ten  years.  This  would  imply  that  in  some  pros- 
perous year  near  1820  we  may  fairly  expect  to  see  a  world's 
production  of  one  hundred  million  tons  of  pig  iron;  and  that  by 
1830  an  annual  output  of  150  million  tons  may  be  normal.  The 
rate  of  increase  here  assumed  is  considerably  below  that  at  which 
the  iron  industries  of  certain  countries  have  recently  developed, 
but  since  it  has  been  calculated  on  a  broader  basis,  it  is  probably 
more  .reliable  than  if  based  on  local  growth. 

So  far  we  have  been  considering  merely  the  matter  of  tonnage 
produced,  in  an  attempt  to  make  some  estimate  of  its  future 
growth.  But  a  large  local  production  of  pig  metal  does  not 
necessarily  imply  that  a  profitable  market  will  be  found  for  all 
of  it,  and  some  attention  may  therefore  be  profitably  given  to 
the  matter  of  steel  production,  of  home  consumption  and  of 
exports. 


WORLD  COMPETITION  IN  IRON  AND  STEEL  401 


Steel  Production,  Consumption  and  Exports. — Such  data  as 
are  available  concerning  the  steel  production  of  the  world  are 
presented  below.  They  are  not  given  for  the  earlier  years 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  for  steel  as  a  commercial  metal  did 
not  really  exist  until  the  Bessemer  and  open-hearth  processes  had 
been  perfected. 

STEEL  PRODUCTION  OF  THE  WORLD,  1850-1911. 
QUANTITIES  GIVEN  IN  MILLIONS  OF  TONS 


03 

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t 

1 

03 

3 

§ 

03 

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s 

3 

03 
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03 

3 

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0 

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P 

o 

o 

Pn 

tf 

^ 

PQ 

0 

s 

02 

02 

° 

1850 

1860 

0  01 

0.03 

1870 

0  07 

0  13 

0.09 

0  01 

1880 

1  25 

0  66 

1  38 

0  39 

0   31 

0  10 

0  04 

0  30 

4  43 

1890 

4.28 

2.23 

3.68 

0.58J  0.38 

0.50 

0.20 

0.11 

0.17 

0.07 

0.05 

12.25 

1900 

10.19 

6.54 

4.90 

1.541   2.16 

1.14 

0.64 

0.02 

0.29 

0  45 

27  87 

1910 

26.09 

13.48 

6.47 

3.36 

3.48 

2.12 

1.91 

0.73 

0.72 

0.46 

0.38 

0.35 

59.55 

1911 

23.68 

14.78 

6.56 

3.81    3.87 

2.29 

2.16 

0.78 

0.65 

0.46 

0.23 

0.30 



The  steel  data,  of  courseware  not  so  exact  as  those  relative  to 
pig-iron  production,  for  the  different  countries  report  output  of 
steel  on  somewhat  different  bases.  England  and  the  United 
States,  for  example,  report  on  the  basis  of  total  tonnage  of  ingots 
and  castings  produced;  but  some  other  countries  report  what  is 
practically  steel  for  sale,  and  in  combining  these  two  types  of 
figures  errors  are  of  course  introduced.  On  comparing  the  pig- 
iron  and  steel  totals,  it  is  perhaps  close  to  the  truth  to  estimate 
that,  after  allowances  are  made  for  scrap  used,  about  four-fifths 
of  all  the  pig  iron  produced  is  converted  into  steel. 

It  would  be  convenient  if  we  could  drop  the  inquiry  at  this 
stage,  and  assume  that  the  competitive  ability  of  each  country 
was  measured  by  its  annual  steel  production;  but  unfortunately 
the  matter  is  not  so  simple.  Belgium,  for  example,  which  does 
not  rank  particularly  high  as  a  producer,  has  so  small  a  home  con- 
sumption that  her  tonnage  available  for  export  is  relatively  very 
heavy.  There  must  also  be  considered  the  form  in  which  the 
steel  is  exported,  for  it  is  obvious  that  there  is  more  profit  to  the 
producing  country  in  shipping  highly  finished  material  than  in 
exporting  ingots  or  bars.  It  is  in  fact  very  difficult  to  compare 
the  various  countries,  in  their  competitive  ability,  on  an  equitable 
basis. 

26 


402 


IRON  ORES 


The  following  table  throws  some  light  on  the  exporting  impor- 
tance of  the  various  countries.  It  is  quoted  from  the  annual 
statistical  report  of  the  French  iron  masters,  and  all  of  the  figures 
are  therefore  in  metric  tons. 


IRON  AND  STEEL  EXPORTS  OF  LEADING  NATIONS,  1896-1909 

Germany 

Great  Britain 

Belgium 

United  States 

France 

1896 

829,510 

1,933,549 

525,796 

89,491 

84,839 

1897 

768,176 

1,955,405 

542,375 

230,101 

100,079 

1898 

847,534 

1,708,154 

563,830 

453,460 

93,803 

1899 

777,181 

1,797,367 

534,464 

479,991 

83,863 

1900 

838,360 

1,624,500 

417,769 

707,806 

51,885 

1901 

1,410,534 

1,577,070 

473,155 

493,277 

95,821 

1902 

2,126,803 

1,958,136 

601,518 

201,502 

160,512 

1903 

2,199,984 

1,970,718 

738,810 

146,912 

234,131 

1904 

1,673,793 

1,947,925 

706,268 

943,987 

269,928 

1905 

1,983,732 

2,176,297 

834,946 

843,898 

304,485 

1906 

2,116,908 

2,328,749 

866,169 

845,029 

238,739 

1907 

1,995,206 

2,457,671 

877,778 

790,875 

298,184 

1908 

1,773,807- 

2,071,713 

814,632 

591,781 

350,993 

1909 

1,935,215 

1,937,034 

958,489 

775,151 

300,455 

The  products  included  in  the  above  table  differ  somewhat  in 
each  country  but  may  fairly  be  summarized  as  covering  ingots, 
bars,  sheets,  structural  and  railroad  material  and  plates. 

The  Basal  Factors  in  World  Competition. — When  the  question 
of  world  competition  is  considered  with  regard  to  a  bulky  and 
cheap  product  such  as  iron,  it  is  evident  that  certain  factors  might 
be  of  importance  in  connection  with  smaller  industries  can  be 
entirely  disregarded  here,  and  that  attention  can  be  concentrated 
upon  a  few  relatively  important  factors.  For  our  present  pur- 
poses we  may  conveniently  summarize  these  under  the  following 
headings : 

1.  Coal  supplies. 

2.  Ore  supplies. 

3.  Market  conditions. 

4.  Labor  conditions. 

5.  Financial  and  political  conditions. 

Of  the  five  factors  named,  two — coal  and  ore  supplies — are  fixed, 
so  far  as  any  particular  area  is  concerned,  though  even  here  the 
progress  of  the  industry  may  in  future  make  available  raw  mate- 
rials now  considered  unprofitable.  The  three  remaining  factors 
are  based  less  upon  natural  conditions  than  upon  human  relations 
and  are  therefore  subject  to  more  or  less  rapid  change.  In  dis- 


WORLD  COMPETITION  IN  IRON  AND  STEEL   403 

cussing  the  question  of  iron  production  it  is  a  common  error  to  fix 
the  attention  too  firmly  on  the  natural  factors,  and  to  think  only 
of  the  raw  materials.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  though  of  course  an 
iron  industry  can  not  develop  anywhere  without  raw  materials, 
the  history  of  its  growth  in  various  countries  shows  that  the 
human  or  shifting  factors  far  outweigh  in  effect  the  natural  or 
fixed  ones. 

So  far  as  the  subject  of  coal  reserves  enters  into  this  question, 
it  may  be  summarized  with  sufficient  accuracy  for  our"  present 
purposes  by  grouping  the  coal  producing  countries  roughly  ac- 
cording to  current  estimates  of  their  reserve  tonnages.  The 
United  States  and  China  would  occupy  the  first  group,  each  hav- 
ing probably  over  1,000,000  million  tons  of  unmined  coal  in 
reserve.  The  second  group  would  comprise  countries  whose  coal 
reserves  are  supposed  to  fall  within  the  limits  of  100,000  million 
and  500,000  million;  and  this  group  would  include  Germany, 
Great  Britain,  Canada  and  New  South  Wales.  A  third  group  would 
include  countries  whose  reserves  are  less  than  100,000  million 
tons;  here  would  fall  India,  South  Africa,  Russia,  France,  Spain, 
Belgium,  Austro-Hungary  and  many  others.  Finally  we  might 
note  that  the  probable  coal  reserves  of  Japan,  Mexico,  Central 
America,  South  America,  and  much  of  Asia  and  Africa  are  almost 
negligible. 

With  regard  to  the  question  of  iron-ore  reserves,  reference 
should  be  made  both  to  the  preceding  chapter  on  the  ore  reserves 
of  the  world,  and  to  the  still  earlier  chapters  dealing  with  the  iron- 
ore  resources  of  the  individual  countries.  These  chapters  con- 
tain sufficient  data  on  this  subject  to  be  serviceable  in  the  present 
connection. 

In  the  following  summary  an  attempt  is  made  to  place  the  gen- 
eral facts  regarding  the  coal  and  iron-ore  reserves  of  the  world 
in  convenient  form  for  our  present  purposes.  With  this  in  view, 
the  principal  countries  are  grouped  in  four  classes,  as  regards  ore- 
reserve  tonnages,  and  these  four  are  in  turn  subdivided  into  other 
groups  based  on  coal-reserve  tonnage.  The  final  result  is  that 
there  are  sixteen  possible  sub-groups  in  which  any  country  may 
be  placed.  By  using  the  data  on  ore  and  coal  reserves  presented 
in  this  and  preceding  chapters,  modified  where  necessary  to  suit 
our  present  requirements,  the  proper  place  of  most  of  the  impor- 
tant countries  can  be  ascertained  quite  accurately. 


404 


IRON  ORES 


The  grouping  here  offered  is,  of  course,  not  precise  or  final,  for 
in  addition  to  gaps  in  our  knowledge  of  the  ore  and  coal  supplies 
of  the  Asiatic  and  African  areas,  there  is  the  difficulty  of  using  a 
few  classes  to  express  almost  infinite  gradations  in  ore  and  coal 
reserves.  It  is  necessary,  for  example,  to  place  in  the  same  sub- 
group different  countries  whose  reserves  may  in  reality  differ 
quite  widely  in  importance.  But  with  all  these  defects,  the 
summary  does  succeed  in  presenting  the  general  facts  more  clearly 
than  has  been  done  heretofore,  and  it  offers  a  valuable  check  upon 
our  current  idea  of  the  relative  future  importance  of  different 
areas.  The  numerals  preceding  the  names  of  the  individual 
countries  show,  it  may  be  noted,  the  order  in  which  they  rank  at 
present  as  iron  producers. 

SUMMARY  OF  WORLD'S  COAL  AND  IRON-ORE  RESERVE  SITUATION 


Known  available  iron  ore  reserves 

I.   Ore  reserves 

II.  Ore  reserves 

III.    Ore  reserves 

IV.  Ore  reserves 

2000  million 

between  1,000  and 

between  200  and 

less  than  150 

tons  or  over 

2000  million  tons 

1000  million  tons 

million  tons 

A.     Coal     re- 

AI 

All 

AIII 

AIV 

serves  of 

1  United 

>°  China  (?) 

over  700,000 

States. 

million  tons 

B. 

B  I 

B  II 

B  III 

B  IV 

Coal   reserves 

2  Germany. 

3  Great  Britain. 

16  Australia. 

between 

8  Canada. 

100,000  mil- 

lion and 

» 

500,000  mil- 

lion tons. 

C. 

C  I 

CI1 

cm 

CIV 

Coal  reserves 

4  France. 

1  South  Africa? 

5  Russia. 

7Belgium. 

between 

6  Austria. 

10,000    mil- 

14 British. 

lion  and 

India. 

100,000  mil- 

lion tons. 

D. 

D  I 

DII 

Dili 

DIV 

Coal   reserves 

Brazil. 

9  Sweden. 

11  Spain. 

12  Italy. 

less  than 

Cuba. 

Chile. 

Greece. 

10,000    mil- 

Newfound- 

15 Mexico. 

lion  tons. 

land. 

13  Japan. 

The  small  figures  indicate  the  present  rank  of  the  various  countries  in  iron 
and  steel  production. 


WORLD  COMPETITION  IN  IRON  AND  STEEL   405 

The  World  Competition  of  the  Future. — An  examination  of  the 
data  which  have  been  presented  on  the  earlier  pages  of  this  chap- 
ter is  sufficient  to  show  that  at  present  the  leading  steel  producers 
of  the  world  are  the  United  States,  Germany,  and  Great  Britain; 
and  that  these  three  are  still  so  closely  matched  so  far  as  natural 
resources  are  concerned  that  even  slight  shifts  in  Government 
policy  may  be  enough  to  give  one  a  distinct  advantage  over  the 
others.  For  the  present,  and  for  the  immediate  future,  this  is  a 
fair  view  of  the  case.  But  the  situation  changes  sharply  when  we 
attempt  to  get  some  idea  of  the  probable  conditions  a  few  decades 


FIG.  66. — Chief  competitive  steel  centers  of  the  world. 

hence,  for  by  that  time  differences  in  natural  resources  will  have 
begun  to  tell  heavily  against  one  of  the  competitors. 

When  coal  and  iron-ore  resources,  labor  conditions  and  probable 
markets  are  all  taken  into  account,  it  is  difficult  to  escape  from 
the  conclusion  that  within  a  relatively  short  period,  as  the  lives 
of  nations  are  measured,  the  competition  for  leadership  not  only 
in  steel  but  in  general  industries  will  lie  between  the  United  States, 
China  and  Germany.  Even  those  who  talk  most  loudly  about 
the  Yellow  Peril  do  not  seem  to  have  realized  the  precise  nature 


406  IRON  ORES 

of  our  disadvantage  in  the  race  struggle  which  is  to  come.  When 
the  East  meets  the  West  in  final  conflict,  wherever  and  whenever 
that  conflict  may  take  place,  it  will  be  a  case  of  full  bunkers 
against  exhausted  ones;  and  no  amount  of  courage  or  ingenuity 
will  make  up  for  deficiencies  in  coal  supply.  Fortunately,  speak- 
ing from  a  purely  national  point  of  view,  our  own  coal  resources 
are  so  enormous  that  we  can  view  this  situation  with  some  equa- 
nimity; but  for  Europe  it  is  of  more  than  passing  moment. 

The  Limit  of  Iron  and  Steel  Development. — In  discussing  the 
manner  in  which  the  world's  output  of  iron  has  grown  during  the 
past,  it  was  noted  that  for  over  a  century,  the  increase  in  output 
has  averaged  about  50  percent  every  ten  years.  It  was  further 
pointed  out  that  this  rate  of  increase  showed  no  signs  of  immediate 
diminution,  and  that  if  it  is  maintained  it  will  imply  the  produc- 
tion of  100  million  tons  of  iron  in  1920,  and  of  150  million  tons  in 
1930.  If  the  same  rate  should  persist  to  the  end  of  the  present 
century,  the  world's  pig-iron  output  of  the  year  2000  would  be 
approximately  2500  million  tons.  It  is  obvious  that  if  we  are  to 
accept  the  possibilities  that  such  tonnages  will  be  required  annu- 
ally, we  must  also  be  prepared  to  admit  the  most  dismal  fore- 
bodings of  the  ultra-Conservationists;  for  in  most  discussions  of 
the  subject  the  final  conclusion  is  that  we  will  come  to  wreck 
because  of  the  utter  exhaustion  of  our  ore  and  coal  supplies.  This 
is  a  discouraging  conclusion,  and  it  has  little  of  practical  value, 
for  not  even  a  political  theorist  has  yet  shown  us  how  to  eat  our 
cake  and  have  it  too.  So  it  may  be  of  interest  to  discuss  the 
question  from  a  different  standpoint,  and  see  if  any  results  of 
value  can  be  obtained. 

At  the  outset  we  may  fairly  assume  that  the  iron  production  of 
the  world  will  not  maintain  its  present  rate  of  increase  forever; 
but  that  this  rate  will,  at  some  period  unknown,  begin  to  fall  off, 
so  that  instead  of  showing  a  50  percent  increase  in  output  each 
decade,  the  increased  production  may  be  only  trifling,  and  that 
ultimately  there  may  be  no  increase  at  all.  We  know  that  this 
falling  off  must  happen  at  some  time;  we  do  not  know  just  when 
it  will  happen;  but  we  do  know  that  when  it  happens  it  will  be  due 
to  the  operation  of  one  or  more  of  the  following  three  causes : 

1.  Actual  decrease  in  the  world's  steel  requirements. 

2.  The  use  of  substitute  materials  for  iron  and  steel. 

3.  Exhaustion  of  the  ore  and  coal  supplies. 


WORLD  COMPETITION  IN  IRON  AND  STEEL    407 

It  will  be  profitable  to  take  up  these  three  factors  separately, 
in  the  order  in  which  they  have  just  been  named,  and  try  to 
determine  how  far  each  one  is  likely  to  exert  a  serious  influence 
over  the  future  of  the  steel  industry. 

1.  Decreased  Demand. — Though  steel  and  iron  are  not  im- 
perishable, the  amount  which  is  lost  to  the  world  each  year  is  a 
mere  fraction  of  the  annual  supply,  and  this  fraction  is  becoming 
relatively  smaller  each  year.  The  chief  loss  is  by  rusting,  though 
the  more  spectacular  losses  to  which  attention  is  called  are  through 
shipwrecks,  mine  disasters,  etc.  As  the  world  goes  on  we  may 
fairly  expect  that  both  these  sources  of  loss  will  decrease,  at  least 
relatively  to  the  annual  supply.  But  this  implies  that  the  bulk 
of  the  year's  output  is  added  to  a  steadily  increasing  stock  of  iron 
and  steel  already  in  use;  and  obviously  there  must  come  a  time 
when  the  stock  on  hand  will  be  sufficient  for  all  uses,  with  the 
help  of  comparatively  slight  additions  and  renewals.  This  may 
be  accepted  as  a  certainty  of  the  future;  and  the  only  question 
then  is,  whether  the  slacking  off  in  demand  is  likely  to  occur  soon 
or  at  an  indefinitely  future  day.  Of  course  this  question  cannot 
be  answered  with  any  precision,  but  even  a  summary  of  the  main 
facts  bearing  on  it  brings  out  some  points  of  interest. 

If  we  could  confine  attention  to  Europe  and  the  United  States, 
it  could  be  said  that  both  the  annual  output  and  the  consumption 
have  shown  steady  and  large  increases  for  many  years;  but  that 
in  spite  of  this  fact  there  are  certain  features  indicating  that  the 
turning  point  may  be  nearer  than  expected.  There  must  be 
noted,  for  example,  the  fact  that  in  certain  lines  the  industry  is 
not  progressing  as  rapidly  as  heretofore;  the  rail-mill  capacity 
of  the  United  States,  as  an  instance,  is  probably  almost  twice  as 
great  as  the  average  annual  requirements.  And  there  is  the  far 
more  important  fact  that  the  great  producing  nations  have,  during 
the  past  decade,  been  led  to  depend  more  and  more  upon  the 
export  trade,  not  only  during  years  of  depression  at  home,  but 
in  normal  years.  It  is  indeed  very  doubtful  if  the  civilized  por- 
tion of  the  world,  confined  to  its  own  markets,  could  hold  the 
50  percent  rate  of  increase  for  more  than  a  decade  longer. 

But  the  outlook  becomes  more  encouraging  when  the  other 
parts  of  the  world  are  recalled  to  mind.  At  present  European 
and  American  mills  supply  the  iron  and  steel  requirements  of  a 
civilized  area  which  contains  about  one-third  of  the  inhabitants 


408  IRON  ORES 

of  the  globe.  At  first  glance  it  might  be  assumed  that  the  sudden 
modernization  of  the  world  would  afford  a  market  for  about  three 
times  our  present  annual  steel  production.  This,  however, 
would  be  an  error  of  the  same  type  which  is  encountered  when 
the  western  United  States  is  compared,  as  a  possible  steel  or 
cement  market,  with  the  east  or  middle  west,  on  a  purely  popu- 
lation basis.  Steel  consumption  is  not  entirely  dependent  on 
population;  and  large  portions  of  the  earth  will  never  be  as  im- 
portant consumers  as  Europe.  If  we  had  any  exact  data  on  the 
coal  reserves  of  the  world  they  might  serve  as  a  better  basis  of 
comparison  than  population.  But  since  exactness  is  not  required 
in  the  present  discussion,  it  might  perhaps  be  safely  assumed  that 
if  the  entire  world  could  be  suddenly  modernized  up  to  the  stand- 
ard of  Europe  and  the  United  States,  a  market  for  between  125 
and  175  million  tons  of  steel  per  year  could  be  found  now. 

This  is  somewhat  more  than  double  the  present  output  of  the 
world;  but  it  is  only  about  what  the  present  rate  of  growth  will 
produce  by  1930.  So  that  even  on  this  basis,  two  decades  more 
may  see  the  beginning  of  a  decreased  rate  of  growth  in  the  steel 
industry  of  the  world.  In  an  earlier  chapter,  where  the  duration 
of  the  world's  iron  supplies  is  considered,  calculations  have  been 
made  on  this  basis. 

2.  Substitute  Materials. — The  second  possibility  is  that,  even 
though  the  world's  requirements  for  structural  material  continues 
to  grow  at  the  present  rate,  this  demand  may  be  partly  or  wholly 
satisfied  by  the  use  of  some  other  metal  or  of  some  non-metallic 
material  as  a  substitute  for  iron  and  steel.  This  is  of  course  a 
possibility,  and  one  that  appeals  strongly  to  popular  writers  on 
the  subject.  It  is  very  easy  to  refer  casually  to  the  possibilities 
of  electro-metallurgy,  to  call  attention  to  the  growth  of  the  cement 
industry,  and  to  mention  the  development  of  aluminum  manu- 
facture. But  when  we  pass  out  of  the  domain  of  magazine  writ- 
ing and  into  the  realm  of  facts,  the  solution  offered  does  not  seem 
so  simple  or  so  promising. 

The  inherent  difficulty  of  the  matter  is  brought  out  sharply 
as  soon  as  we  recall  that  an  efficient  substitute  must  be  cheaper 
than  the  material  for  which  it  is  substituted.  This  statement 
would  be  subject  to  exceptions,  but  in  considering  a  large-scale 
industry  it  may  be  accepted  as  substantially  true.  More  than 
that,  when  we  are  dealing  with  some  hundreds  of  millions  of  tons 


WORLD  COMPETITION  IN  IRON  AND  STEEL  409 

per  year,  it  is  clear  that  in  order  to  be  cheaper,  the  substitute 
material  must  be  naturally  very  common.  Now,  if  the  reader 
will  refer  back  to  the  tables  in  Chapter  II,  where  analyses  of  the 
rocks  of  the  earth's  crust  are  presented,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
only  elements  commoner  than  iron  are  silica  and  alumina,  though 
lime  and  magnesia  follow  close  behind.  It  is  out  of  this  group 
of  four  elements  that  our  theoretical  substitute  for  iron  and  steel 
must  be  manufactured.  The  substitute  may  be  a  metal,  an 
oxide,  or  a  silicate  compound. 

My  views  as  to  the  possibility  of  securing  a  substitute  for  iron 
from  this  group  are  perhaps  unorthodox,  from  a  popular  stand- 
point, but  they  have  some  basis  in  fact,  and  may  as  well  be  stated. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  we  are  not  dealing  with  unknown 
elements  or  compounds,  but  that  all  of  the  possible  components 
of  the  group  are  very  well  known.  We  have  already  a  very  fair 
idea  of  the  properties  which  maybe  expected  from  aluminum, 
silicon,  silica,  lime,  magnesia,  lime  silicate,  etc.;  and  in  no  case 
does  there  appear  to  be  any  serious  chance  that  a  product  can 
be  developed  to  take  the  place  of  any  large  portion  of  the  world's 
iron  requirements.  Some  of  the  theoretically  possible  materials 
can  be  dismissed  with  mere  mention,  and  even  the  two  best 
known — aluminum  and  Portland  cement — do  not  seem  promising. 
Any  study  of  the  resources  and  possibilities  of  the  aluminum 
industry  will  lead  to  the  conviction  that  this  metal  will  become 
a  very  serious  competitor  for  copper,  that  in  time  it  may  replace 
part  of  our  tin-plate  requirements,  but  that  it  is  extremely 
unlikely  that  it  will  cut  into  the  iron  trade  in  any  other  way. 
As  for  cement,  a  rather  intimate  acquaintance  with  that  industry 
leads  me  to  consider  cement  not  as  a  competitor  to  steel,  but  as  a 
subsidiary  material.  Portland  cement,  as  at  present  made  and 
sold,  does-  not  seriously  reduce  the  requirements  for  iron  at  any 
point,  and  in  some  ways  tends  rather  to  increase  those  require- 
ments. It  is  of  course  possible  that  cement,  as  it  may  later  be 
made  and  used  in  another  form,  may  have  more  influence  over 
the  steel  industry. 

3.  Raw  Material  Exhaustion. — It  is  a  current  idea  that  exhaus- 
tion of  iron  ore  and  coal  reserves  will  occur  so  soon  as  to  put  a  stop 
to  the  normal  development  of  the  iron  industry.  In  the  present 
study,  as  shown  by  the  paragraphs  relating  to  the  decreased 
demand  for  iron,  this  conclusion,  is  not  accepted.  So  far  as  such 


410  IRON  ORES 

a  matter  can  be  decided  far  in  advance,  it  seems  far  more  probable 
that  the  first  slackening  in  our  rate  of  growth  will  take  place  long 
before  the  ore  and  coal  supplies  of  the  world  show  signs  of  ex- 
haustion; and  that  decreased  demand  will  become  effective  long 
before  we  have  to  accept  any  substantial  reduction  from  existing 
standards  of  ore  grade.  Much  of  this  matter  has  been  gone  over 
in  Chapter  XXIX,  where  the  probable  duration  of  the  world's 
ore  supplies  is  discussed  in  some  detail.  Here  it  will  only  be 
necessary  to  summarize  the  main  facts  of  the  case. 

No  good  estimate  of  the  world's  actually  available  coal  supply 
is  known  to  have  been  made,  but  a  series  of  partial  estimates  will 
give  a  basis  good  enough  for  our  present  purposes.  It  may  then 
be  assumed  that  to  meet  the  world's  total  future  fuel  require- 
ments there  are  some  four  million  million  tons  of  real  coal  in  known 
coal  fields  and  at  reasonable  working  depth.  To  this,  for  the 
more  distant  future,  we  might  add  very  heavily  for  lignites  and 
low-grade  coals,  for  new  fields,  and  for  coal  at  depths  now  con- 
sidered unworkable.  At  present  the  world  is  using  this  supply 
at  the  rate  of  some  one  thousand  million  tons  per  year.  The  coal 
supply  will  hardly  give  out  at  any  early  date,  no  matter  how  fast 
the  demand  increases;  and  as  long  as  there  is  any  commercial 
coal  left,  the  iron  industry  will  get  its  share  of  it. 

As  for  the  duration  of  the  ore  supply,  that  has  already  been 
discussed  in  sufficient  detail  in  Chapter  XXIX.  Here  it  is  only 
necessary  to  say  that  the  world's  supply  of  good  ore  will  suffice  all 
probable  demands  of  the  iron  industry  for  a  century  or  so  more, 
even  allowing  a  rate  of  increase  which  the  present  writer  does  not 
think  likely  to  occur;  while  if  we  contemplate  the  use  of  lower- 
grade  ores  several  centuries  may  elapse  before  the  ore  supply  will 
be  in  serious  danger,  even  assuming  the  same  remarkable  rate  of 
growth  in  ore  utilization  as  occurred  during  the  nineteenth 
century. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 
QUESTIONS  OF  PUBLIC  POLICY 

There  remain  to  be  considered  certain  questions  regarding  the 
relations  which  exist,  and  those  which  should  exist,  between  the 
Government  and  the  iron-mining  industry.  Some  phases  of 
these  questions  have  been  touched  upon  in  the  course  of  the 
chapter  devoted  to  ore  ownership  in  the  United  States,  but  a  more 
general  treatment  of  the  subject  seems  advisable  in  the  present 
place.  There  are,  in  addition,  a  number  of  contact-points  be- 
tween Government  and  private  enterprise  which  may  profitably 
be  at  least  summarized  here. 

The  Limits  of  State  Interest. — For  almost  all  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  public  policy  of  both  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  was  based,  more  or  less  explicitly  upon  purely  individual- 
istic theories  of  State  action.  Until  within  the  past  ten  years  any 
suggestion  of  active  Government  control  or  intervention  in  in- 
dustrial affairs,  except  to  insure  justice  between  competitors, 
would  have  been  looked  upon  as  an  idle  theory,  with  no  possibility 
of  acceptance  here.  So  far  as  mine  control  was  concerned,  no 
member  of  either  political  party  would  have  dared  to  suggest  any- 
thing more  radical  than  that  the  Government  might,  perhaps, 
lease  its  mineral  lands  instead  of  giving  them  away.  Thinking 
men  always  assumed  that  there  was  the  possibility  of  future 
trouble  dormant  in  the  hard-coal  situation,  but  that  was  looked 
upon  as  a  special  and  very  exceptional  case. 

With  the  conservation  movement  of  1906,  however,  we  entered 
upon  new  ground.  From  that  time  on  the  change  in  popular 
sentiment  has  been  very  obvious,  and  of  course  our  politicians 
have  changed  with  it.  To-day  there  is  no  hesitation  about  pro- 
posing Government  control  or  actual  ownership  of  any  kind  of 
property  or  industry;  and  there  is  as  yet  no  sign  that  this  move- 
ment is  approaching  its  culmination. 

Of  course,  if  we  accept  the  idea  that  all  of  our  industries  are  to 
become  socialized,  there  is  no  reason  to  interpose  an  argument 

411 


412  IRON  ORES 

on  behalf  of  any  special  industry  or  group  of  industries.  Pure 
socialism  is  conceivable,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  any  of  our  politicians 
are  courageous  enough  to  declare  openly  in  favor  of  its  adoption. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  we  are  to  stop  at  any  point  short  of  socialism, 
there  must  be  some  basis  for  deciding  where  that  stop  is  to  be 
made.  Even  a  politician  must  think,  occasionally,  and  attempt 
to  supply  some  justification  for  his  votes  and  actions. 

Assuming  that  we  are  to  have  a  Government  of  .the  type  here 
called  Progressive,  and  in  England  Liberal,  we  may  allow  for  a 
considerable  extension  of  State  activities,  provided-  they  follow 
some  recognizable  and  logical  course.  And,  for  our  present  pur- 
poses, it  is  well  worth  while  attempting  to  determine  what  that 
course  should  be,  as  applied  to  the  mining  industries  in  particular. 
There  will,  I  think,  be  substantial  agreement  as  to  some  basal 
features,  and  violent  disagreement  as  to  some  details  of  actual 
practice. 

The  Encouragement  of  Development. — One  feature  upon  which 
there  should  be  close  agreement  among  all  parties  relates  to  the 
general  attitude  which  the  State  should  take  toward  industrial 
development.  In  the  modern  industrial  State  all  the  interests  of 
the  Government  favor  the  most  rapid  possible  development  of 
natural  resources,  consonant  with  commercial  profit.  As  applied 
to  the  mineral  industries  this  attitude  involves  two  distinct 
phases  of  Governmental  activity. 

First,  there  should  be  a  reasonable  inducement  or  encourage- 
ment for  active  search  for  new  mineral  deposits.  Such  encourage- 
ment would  primarily  take  the  form  of  offering  the  discoverer  a 
reward  for  successful  effort.  This  reward  would  naturally  in- 
clude a  free  or  cheap  title  to  the  discovery,  whether  that  title  be 
fee  simple  or  leasehold.  The  reward  would  become  more  certain 
if  the  title  be  clear,  definite,  and  free  from  the  probability  of 
vexatious  and  expensive  litigation.  Unless  private  exploration  is 
to  be  rewarded  in  this  fashion,  the  Government  must  be  prepared 
to  undertake  both  search  and  development  itself,  and  past 
history  does  not  justify  much  hope  in  this  regard. 

Second,  there  should  on  the  other  hand  be  some  requirements 
that  development  should  be  carried  on  as  rapidly  as  commercial 
conditions  justify.  This  may  be  secured  by  a  sliding  scale  lease, 
the  rental  increasing  annually;  or  by  revocation  of  title  in  case 
actual  shipments  have  not  taken  place  within  a  certain  number  of 


QUESTIONS  OF  PUBLIC  POLICY  413 

years  after  discovery.  But  since  it  is  commonly  to  the  interest  of 
the  owner  to  prosecute  work  as  rapidly  as  possible,  all  such 
requirements  should  be  so  drawn  as  to  give  him  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt,  and  merely  be  designed  to  protect  the  State  from  inten- 
tional pocketing  of  ore  reserves.  This  brings  us,  naturally,  to 
another  phase  of  the  relations  of  the  State  to  mining  industries. 

The  Prevention  of  Monopoly. — The  State  has,  of  course,  an 
interest  in  seeing  that  the  mineral  properties  which  it  gives,  sells, 
or  leases  are  not  used  as  the  basis  for  extortionate  prices  on  the 
part  of  the  new  owners;  and  it  is  justified  in  taking  proper  steps 
to  insure  that  monopoly  of  raw  materials  be  prevented.  On  this 
point  there  is  probably  general  agreement,  but  there  is  wide 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  actual  facts  in  any  given  case,  and 
as  to  the  preventive  or  remedial  action  to  be  taken. 

During  the  past  decade,  for  example,  there  have  at  various 
times  been  charges  that  certain  raw  materials  were  being  acquired 
on  a  monopolistic  scale  by  one  or  more  corporations.  Among 
the  mineral  raw  materials  so  discussed  may  be  named  iron  ore, 
coking  coal,  aluminium  ore,  anthracite  coal,  and  a  few  minor 
products.  On  the  assumption  that  such  monopoly  existed,  there 
has  been  a  widespread  demand  for  restriction  of  ownership  to 
some  definite  percentage  of  the  total  supply.  This  has  involved 
certain  errors  as  to  the  facts  of  ownership,  and  more  important 
errors  as  to  the  feasibility  and  effects  of  extensive  ownership. 

In  reality  there  are  very  few  mineral  materials  which  could  be 
completely  monopolized  in  ownership  at  any  .reasonable  cost. 
Diamonds  are,  as  we  know,  subject  to  highly  artificial  price  regu- 
lation; and  potash  and  nitrates  are  held  in  what  is  substantially 
a  Government-aided  monopoly.  A  few  minor  products  are 
controlled  quite  completely  by  either  producers  or  refiners. 

Of  the  metals,  tin,  nickel,  and  aluminium  are  the  only  impor- 
tant ones  offering  much  possibility  of  control  through  ore  owner- 
ship. The  world's  known  reserve  of  tin  ores  is  small,  and  a 
company  using  much  of  the  metal  might  do  well  to  insure  against 
extortion  by  owning  part  of  the  supply;  for  the  annual  output 
is  cornered  with  some  frequency.  Nickel  is  also  scarce,  or  rather 
it  occurs  at  only  a  few  points  in  workable  tonnage.  Aluminium 
has  been  controlled  rather  through  patents  than  by  ore  ownership, 
though  the  latter  element  also  is  supposed  to  exist. 

Lead  and  silver,  produced  mostly  as  by-products,  could  not 


414  IRON  ORES 

possibly  be  controlled  through  ore  ownership,  but  on  the  other 
hand  offer  distinct  opportunities  for  the  refineries.  Iron  ores 
cannot  be  controlled  as  to  tonnage,  and  as  yet  no  control  exists 
on  any  saner  basis.  The  same  may  be  said  of  coking  coal,  or  of 
bituminous  coals  in  general.  The  investment  required  would 
make  mine  control  impossible  commercially. 

The  situation  as  regards  anthracite  coal  is  very  different  from 
those  which  have  been  noted,  and  furnishes  the  weakest  point 
in  the  entire  matter.  The  companies  involved  have  not  been 
notable  for  their  tactful  handling  of  a  question  which  required 
very  careful  treatment;  and  the  results  of  the  pending  suits  may 
easily  be  more  surprising  than  pleasant. 

Finally,  the  copper  situation  can  not  be  discussed  adequately 
here,  and  it  can  only  be  said  that  no  successful  control  of  copper 
prices  has  ever  been  based  upon  actual  monopolistic  ownership 
of  mineral  properties. 

As  a  summary  of  the  entire  matter,  it  may  be  said  that  except 
in  a  few  very  unimportant  instances  price  control  is  never  based 
upon  monopolistic  ownership  of  mines  or  mineral  properties. 

THE  CONSERVATION  OF  IRON-ORE  RESOURCES 

In  several  of  the  preceding  chapters  of  this  volume  it  has  been 
necessary  to  allude  casually  to  the  Conservation  Movement 
which  became  so  striking  a  feature  of  the  political  landscape 
during  the  second  administration  of  President  Roosevelt,  and  it 
is  possible  that  the  allusions  were  not  always  made  in  the  most 
respectful  manner.  The  disrespect,  however,  is  not  due  to  the 
conservation  idea  itself,  for  that  deserves  very  careful  attention; 
but  to  the  way  in  which  its  more  extreme  advocates  attempted 
to  support  and  execute  it.  In  this  regard  the  Conservation  Move- 
ment merely  shared  the  fate  of  all  reforms.  All  of  our  past 
experience  goes  to  show  that  any  new  and  important  view  as  to 
government  policy  will  inevitably,  at  the  outset,  meet  with  so 
much  opposition  and  ridicule  that  its  supporters  will  finally  take 
a  far  more  advanced  stand  than  if  the  reform  had  been  accepted 
quietly.  The  result  is,  of  course,  that  there  is  a  very  violent 
expression  and  execution  of  the  reform,  followed  by  a  natural 
reaction  from  the  excess  of  reform;  and  then,  at  a  later  time,  the 
matter  is  taken  up  again  and  put  into  execution  in  a  reasonable 


QUESTIONS  OF  PUBLIC  POLICY  415 

way.  As  regards  conservation  of  natural  resources  we  seem  to 
have  passed  through  the  successive  stages  of  earnest  enthusiasm, 
of  extreme  and  senseless  popularity — and  of  reaction.  It  is  now 
possible  to  discuss  the  matter  without  treating  it  as  a  purely 
partisan  affair. 

Whatever  extremes  it  may  have  been  led  into  later,  the  Con- 
servation Movement  at  the  outset  had  a  very  sound  basis  of  fact 
and  argument.  It  is  true  that  certain  of  our  natural  resources 
are  being  wasted  or  used  uneconomically.  Since  this  enhances 
the  cost  of  the  output,  and  decreases  the  total  supply,  it  is  a  mat- 
ter of  general  public  interest,  and  not  merely  a  private  business 
affair.  It  is  idle  to  say  that  an  owner  may  do  as  he  pleases  with 
his  own  property.  We  know,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  as  soon 
as  he  develops  ideas  in  this  regard  which  run  counter  to  sound 
public  policy,  a  way  will  be  found  to  control  the  situation  legally. 

The  waste  or  uneconomical  use  of  a  natural  product  such  as 
timber  is  serious,  but  is  it  obviously  far  more  serious  when  the 
product  wasted  is  one,  like  ore,  which  does  not  reproduce  itself. 
If  it  could  be  established  that  existing  conditions  as  to  ownership 
do  encourage  waste  of  ore,  there  would  be  some  reason  to  place 
legal  restrictions  upon  such  private  rights  as  led  to  such  waste. 
But,  unfortunately  for  this  particular  application  of  conservation 
principles,  it  has  never  been  suggested  by  any  competent  author- 
ity that  private  ownership  of  iron  mines  leads  to  waste  of  ore. 
It  has,  however,  been  pointed  out  that  excessive  competition 
among  a  multitude  of  small  owners  may  very  easily  lead  to  ex- 
travagant and  wasteful  mining  methods;  but  that  is  an  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  the  large  corporation  as  against  the  small 
owner.  On  that  account  it  is  not  pressed  to  the  front  by 
advocates  of  government  control,  even  though  its  truth  is 
commonly  accepted.  Bearing  in  mind  the  enormous  ore  reserves 
known  to  be  available,  it  is  difficult  to  find  any  good  reason  for 
advocating  government  control  of  the  iron-mining  industry, 
based  on  any  theory  as  to  the  necessity  for  conservation. 

In  discussing  the  conservation  of  iron  ores,  it  is  still  necessary 
to  limit  consideration  to  its  effects  on  the  welfare  of  the  country 
in  which  one  lives.  There  may  come  a  time  when  national  bound- 
aries will  be  of  merely  historic  interest,  and  when  the  nations 
will  compete  in  friendly  rivalry  for  the  privilege  of  doing  each 
other  the  most  good.  The  man  of  that  time — if  indeed  that  sex 


416  IRON  ORES 

has  much  to  say  about  the  matter — will  be  able  to  say  with  truth 
that  he  looks  upon  the  whole  world  as  his  country.  But  at  pres- 
ent, though  certain  of  the  purer  spirits  of  the  Peace  Congress  have 
already  attained  that  advanced  stage  of  enlightenment,  the  world 
in  general  is  still  unconvinced.  The  nations  still  compete  for 
business,  with  little  of  either  kinship  or  kindness  apparent,  and 
we  must  still  take  a  national  view  of  any  public  policy.  Disre- 
garding the  distant  outlook,  we  must  deal  with  conditions  as  they 
are,  and  as  they  affect  the  United  States. 

Such  restriction  of  ideas  and  policies  suggests  that,  though  no 
obstacle  should  be  placed  in  the  way  of  the  cheapest  possible 
development  of  our  own  iron  ores,  the  most  effective  conserving 
agent  will  be  the  free  use  of  foreign  ores  whenever  they  are 
economically  available.  This  implies  that  our  tariff  against 
foreign  ores,  in  force  until  quite  recently,  was  an  economic  mis- 
take; and  that  it  should  not  be  replaced  under  any  circumstances. 
Further,  it  implies  that  export  duties  levied  by  foreign  govern- 
ments upon  ores  which  may  reach  our  furnaces  are,  in  reality, 
discriminations  against  our  steel  industry. 

The  Taxation  of  Iron  Ores. — Another  point  of  contact  between 
Governmental  and  private  activities  is  furnished  by  the  taxation 
of  ores  and  of  ore  reserves.  Until  recently  this  was  hardly  a 
matter  of  serious  interest,  for  in  the  older  states  the  general 
practice  has  been  to  tax  mining  property  on  a  basis  roughly 
corresponding  to  the  value  of  machinery  and  improvements  in 
sight,  and  to  pay  no  attention  to  the  possible  value  of  the  ore 
reserves. 

In  the  Lake  Superior  region,  however,  other  methods  of  taxa- 
tion have  been  devised  and  put  in  force — or  perhaps  it  would  be 
fairer  to  say  that  taxation  has  actually  been  made  methodical. 
For,  whatever  we  may  think  of  the  different  methods  in  use  in  the 
Lake  states,  they  all  have  at  least  the  merit  of  being  exact  and 
based  upon  intelligible  rules. 

Both  Minnesota  and  Michigan  levy  a  tax  upon  iron-ore  re- 
serves, but  the  two  methods  differ  sharply  in  their  underlying 
theory  and  in  their  practical  effects.  Minnesota  divides  the  ores 
into  a  number  of  classes,  classified  according  to  ore  grade,  accessi- 
bility and  other  factors;  and  then  assigns  a  certain  tax  rate  per 
ton  to  the  ore  of  each  class.  Michigan  based  its  tax  system  upon 
the  probable  net  annual  return  from  the  various  properties,  so 


QUESTIONS  OF  PUBLIC  POLICY  417 

that  though  expressed  as  an  ore  reserve  tax,  it  is  really  a  tax  upon 
probable  net  earnings.  From  the  economic  point  of  view,  the 
Michigan  plan  seems  to  be  sounder  than  the  Minnesota  plan, 
though  of  course  the  relative  effects  of  the  two  plans  will  be  really 
determined  by  the  manner  in  which  the  different  theories  are 
actually  put  into  practice. 

After  having  been  mined,  iron  ore  of  course  becomes  personal 
property,  and  as  such  is  taxable  at  any  point  on  its  journey  where 
it  remains  long  enough  for  a  valid  taxing  right  to  be  established. 
In  the  case  of  the  Lake  Superior  ores,  there  are  three  points  at 
which  ores  are  normally  carried  in  sufficient  quantity  to  make 
this  possibility  of  interest.  The  three  stocking  points  are  (1)  at 
the  mines  and  upper  Lake  docks;  (2)  at  lower  lake  docks  and  at 
(3)  the  furnaces.  Since  the  states  of  Michigan  and  Minnesota 
have  already  taxed  the  ore  in  the  ground,  no  fair  claim  could  be 
set  up  to  place  an  additional  tax  on  ore  in  stock-piles  in  the  Lake 
Superior  region.  With  regard  to  lower  lake  ports  the  case  is 
different,  and  here  at  least  one  state — Ohio — is  ready  to  levy  a  tax 
on  ore  in  transit.  In  discussing  the  transportation  of  ore  from 
the  Lake  Superior  district  to  the  furnaces,  it  was  noted  that  the 
stocks  of  ore  carried  through  the  winter  at  ports  on  Lake  Erie  are 
increasing  each  year. 

The  figures  on  page  209  will  serve  to  give  some  idea  of  the  ore 
tonnage  normally  carried  at  Lake  Erie  ports  through  the  winter, 
and  which  may  now  be  subjected  to  local  taxation. 

In  considering  the  effects  of  taxation  in  this  connection,  it  will 
be  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  levying  and  collection  of  a  tax, 
whatever  its  nature,  does  not  create  wealth.  It  merely  takes 
wealth  from  one  class  of  citizens  and  turns  it  over  to  the  govern- 
ment to  be  spent,  theoretically,  for  the  common  good.  In  the 
case  of  a  special  tax  on  an  article  of  commerce  or  industry,  such 
as  we  are  now  considering,  it  is  obvious  enough  that  the  original 
payer  of  the  tax  will  not  assume  the  burden  permanently,  but  will 
shift  it  as  promptly  as  possible  to  the  purchaser  of  his  goods,  by 
raising  prices  to  cover  the  tax.  This  process,  carried  out  at  each 
stage  of  the  industry  using  goods,  finally  results  in  causing  the 
" ultimate  consumer"  to  pay -higher  prices  for  the  finished 
product. 

Export  Duties. — The  question  of  the  ultimate  payment  of  tax 
burdens  becomes  a  matter  of  still  broader  interest  when  the  tax 


418  IRON  ORES 

is  levied  in  the  form  of  an  export  duty  on  ore.  Several  countries 
have  done  this,  for  several  different  reasons.  It  is  justified 
commonly  on  the  argument  that  ore  mining  does  not  imply  as 
much  industrial  development  or  wealth  creation  as  steel-making; 
and  that  consequently  the  country  may  reasonably  levy  a  tax  on 
exports  of  raw  materials  designed  for  finishing  in  another  country. 
Sweden,  Spain,  Brazil  and  Newfoundland  have,  in  one  form  or 
another,  levied  export  duties  on  iron  ores.  In  the  cases  of  Spain 
and  Sweden  the  issue  is  frankly  stated;  in  Brazil  it  takes  the  form 
of  a  port  tax;  in  Newfoundland  a  royalty  was  levied  as  a  substi- 
tute for  a  proposed  export  tax. 

The  effect  of  an  export  tax  will  differ,  according  to  competitive 
conditions.  When  the  ore  so  taxed  is  being  taken  by  a  furnace 
district  which  requires  it  very  much,  the  amount  of  the  tax  can 
usually  be  added  to  the  price  of  the  ore.  But  when  the  taxed  ore 
is  subject  to  keen  competition  from  ore  mined  elsewhere,  the  tax 
can  not  be  so  shifted  to  the  furnace,  and  in  that  case  it  falls  as  a 
direct  burden  on  the  miner 


CHAPTER  XXXII 
QUESTIONS  OF  PRIVATE  POLICY 

As  in  dealing  with  questions  of  public  policy,  the  preceding 
discussion  has  left  untreated,  or  inadequately  treated,  certain 
matters  relating  to  the  proper  policy  of  individuals  and  corpora- 
tions with  regard  to  iron-ore  reserves.  The  present  brief  chapter 
will  touch  upon  some  of  the  more  important  of  these  questions, 
and  will  suggest  certain  points  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  writer, 
are  deserving  of  consideration. 

Reasons  for  Reserve  Ownership. — In  an  earlier  chapter  of  this 
volume,  it  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  ownership  of  large  ore 
reserves  implies  a  steady  burden  upon  the  company  owning  them; 
and  that  there  are  actual  financial  limitations  to  excessive  re- 
serves, regardless  of  legal  or  other  considerations. 

This  line  of  argument  might  be  extended,  of  course,  to  operate 
as  an  objection  to  any  ownership  of  ore  reserves  whatever;  and  it 
is  perfectly  true  that  if  a  company  were  assured  of  being  able  to 
cover  its  ore  requirements  in  the  open  market,  during  twenty  or 
thirty  years  to  come,  it  would  not  be  financially  justified  in  own- 
ing ore  reserves,  unless  they  were  obtainable  at  a  bargain  price.. 

But  it  would  be  difficult  to  give  such  assurances  in  most  cases. 
The  merchant  ore  market  in  the  Lake  Superior  district  is  large, 
but  for  a  large  steel  company  to  depend  entirely  upon  merchant 
ores  would  be  considered  hazardous  by  most  people.  It  should 
at  least  own  sufficient  tonnage  to  be  sure  that,  under  no  circum- 
stances, would  it  be  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  general  market  con- 
ditions. It  might  not  use  this  owned  tonnage  in  normal  years,, 
but  it  should  be  there  ready  for  use.  If  the  ownership  involves 
extra  costs,  they  may  fairly  be  looked  upon  as  insurance  against 
the  possibilities  inherent  in  a  boom  year. 

For  companies  not  located  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  or  within 
the  Lake  Superior  shipping  radius,  the  argument  for  ownership  of 
ores  is  even  stronger.  For  in  other  areas  there  is  practically  no 
merchant  tonnage  on  which  one  could  depend  in  any  year. 

Further  than  this,  there  are  reasons  connected  with  the  financ- 

419 


420  IRON  ORES 

ing  of  steel  companies  which  practically  force  the  ownership  of 
large  reserves.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  small  and  particu- 
larly strong  companies,  dependence  for  funds  is  on  one  or  more  of 
the  great  banking  houses.  During  recent  years  there  has  been 
a  growing  tendency,  when  furnishing  funds  for  expansion  and 
development,  to  insist  upon  the  ownership  of  large  raw  material 
reserves.  The  banking  view,  due  perhaps  to  official  and  other 
hysteria  over  raw  material  exhaustion,  is  that  the  ownership  of 
such  reserves  constitutes  a  guarantee  of  higher  value  than  the 
other  tangible  and  intangible  assets.  Perhaps  this  idea  has  been 
too  strongly  emphasized  at  times,  but  it  is  substantially  sound 
after  all,  and  so  long  as  it  is  commonly  accepted  among  financial 
houses  it  must  be  reckond  with  by  manufacturers. 

Ore  Reserves  and  the  Banking  House. — The  industrial  reasons 
for  holding  relatively  large  reserves  have  been  discussed  in  an 
earlier  chapter,  and  the  financial  considerations  which  operate  to 
place  a  maximum  limit  on  reserve  holdings  have  also  been  noted. 
There  is,  however,  another  point  of  contact  between  financial 
conditions  and  ore  reserves  which  requires  some  consideration, 
for  it  has  afforded  one  of  the  more  pressing  reasons  for  the  accumu- 
lation of  such  reserve  tonnages. 

Until  the  development  of  the  great  consolidations  some  twenty 
to  thirty  years  ago,  the  relation  between  the  banking  house  and 
the  steel  or  iron  company  was  limited  in  extent,  discontinuous, 
and  comparatively  unimportant  in  effects.  In  the  cases  of  a 
highly  successful  firm  or  closely  held  corporation,  this  is  still  true. 
Such  industrial  units  as  the  old  Carnegie  partnership,  the  Jones 
and  Laughlin  Company  of  the  present  day,  and  such  successful 
smaller  units  as  La  Belle  and  Woodward  are  only  indirectly 
dependent  upon  banking  support  and  direction.  Industrial  units 
of  this  fortunate  type  are  not,  therefore,  steadily  and  normally 
subject  to  banking  opinion  in  the  conduct  of  their  business. 

In  the  case  of  the  majority  of  corporations,  however,  the  rela- 
tion between  the  manufacturing  company  and  the  banking  house 
has  become  very  intimate,  continuous  and  important  in  its  effects. 
It  has  affected  the  question  of  ore-reserve  ownership  to  a  very 
striking  degree,  through  the  way  in  which  bankers  have  in  recent 
years  laid  stress  upon  the  desirability  of  raw-material  control. 
Ten  or  twelve  years  have  sufficed  to  bring  about  a  very  definite, 
though  rarely  clearly  stated  opinion  in  this  regard,  and  it  will 


QUESTIONS  OF  PRIVATE  POLICY  421 

be  of  advantage  to  trace  briefly  the  stages  of  its  growth,  and  to 
attempt  some  forecast  of  its  probable  future  trend. 

After  a  few  years  of  operation  had  shown  that  the  newly  formed 
Steel  Corporation  was  able  to  weather  industrial  storms,  circum- 
stances brought  about  public  statements  by  several  prominent 
officials.  Made  in  the  first  flush  of  success,  some  of  these  state- 
ments contained  elements  of  later  trouble,  and  have  since  been 
repented  in  sackcloth  and  ashes.  However  we  may  look  upon 
them  now,  these  statements  had  a  very  obvious  and  definite 
effect  upon  public  opinion  in  general,  and  upon  banking  opinion 
in  particular.  To  the  casual  reader  it  seemed  certain  that  one 
very  important  element  in  the  success  of  any  steel  company 
must  be  the  ownership  of  ore  reserves,  and  of  very  large  ore 
reserves  at  that.  To  the  banker  there  was  the  additional  appeal, 
that  only  through  ownership  of  such  reserves  could  there  be  any 
guarantee  of  the  ultimate  value  of  a  bond  issue. 

A  few  years  later  came  the  pessimistic  Swedish  estimate  of 
world  reserves,  and  our  own  Conservation  movement,  both  of 
which  have  been  discussed  in  an  earlier  chapter.  Taken  together 
with  the  prevailing  industrial  sentiment,  there  is  no  reason  for 
surprise  that  insistence  upon  huge  raw-material  tonnages  became 
a  cardinal  principle  writh  many  banking  houses.  It  is  probably 
safe  to  say  that  for  some  eight  or  ten  years  past  there  has  been 
little  chance  of  raising  money  for  any  new  industrial  enterprise 
unless  more  than  adequate  reserves  of  coal  and  ore  could  be  shown. 

Perhaps  the  matter  was  overdone,  but  there  was  an  element 
of  truth  in  the  prevailing  opinion,  and  it  would  be  unfortunate  if 
recent  discussions  caused  a  reaction  in  the  other  direction.  It 
is  still  advisable  for  a  steel  company  to  own  ore  reserves,  and  large 
ore  reserves.  But  we  must  limit  our  ideas  as  to  the  possibility 
of  monopolistic  ownership  on  a  mere  tonnage  basis,  and  we  must 
pay  more  attention  to  other  factors.  The  thing  that  counts  is 
not  the  mere  ownership  of  enormous  tonnages;  it  is  the  control 
of  the  most  desirable  tonnages.  The  United  States  is  full  of 
unmined  ores,  but  nothing  can  shake  the  dominance  of  the  Lake 
ores  over  the  best  portion  of  the  American  steel  market.  The 
world  has  ample  supplies  of  ore  scattered  widely  over  its  surface, 
but  among  them  all  it  will  finally  be  found  that  one  is  so  located 
that  its  control  will  enable  its  owners  to  dictate  price  policy  on 
both  coasts  of  the  Atlantic.  It  is  not  mere  tonnage  that  must 


422  IRON  ORES 

be  aimed  at,  but  grade,  location,  mining  costs  and  shipping 
advantages. 

Effects  of  Overvaluation. — A  question  which  still  remains  to 
be  considered  relates  to  the  effects  of  overvaluation  of  ore  re- 
serves on  the  various  parties  who  may  be  considered  to  have 
rights  in  the  matter.  One  phase  of  this  subject  has  already 
attracted  considerable  public  attention,  and  in  an  earlier  chapter 
it  was  pointed  out  that  one  of  the  principal  complaints  against 
the  existing  status  of  ore  ownership  was  based  upon  the  view 
"that,  regardless  of  extent  of  ownership,  the  steel  companies  are 
in  a  position  to  earn  excessive  profits  on  their  finished  steel  be- 
cause of  assumed  excessive  valuations  placed  on  their  ore  re- 
serves." This  view  will  be  discussed  now,  but  it  is  not  the  only 
thing  which  requires  attention  in  this  connection,  for  if  over- 
valuation exists  it  is  far  more  detrimental  to  other  parties  than 
to  the  consumer  of  the  finished  product.  It  is  easy  enough  to 
make  vague  general  statements  as  to  the  effects  of  overvaluation, 
but  as  these  may  lead  to  erroneous  conclusions,  it  will  be  better 
to  start  from  a  definite  basis  and  follow  out  closely  the  different 
effects  which  will  arise  from  an  initial  error  in  valuation.  For 
our  present  purposes  we  may  assume  the  case  of  a  steel  company 
having  ore  reserves  amounting  to  one  thousand  million  tons. 
We  may  further  assume  that  a  fair  present  valuation  for  this 
ore  would  be  fifty  cents  per  ton;  but  that  for  one  reason  or 
another  the  company  has  carried  it  at  a  valuation  of  one  dollar 
per  ton.  What  effects  will  spring  from  this  overvaluation;  and 
how  will  the  company  itself,  its  security  -holders,  its  competitors, 
and  the  consumers  of  its  product  be  affected? 

First  of  all,  it  is  obvious  that  in  our  assumed  case,  the  assets  of 
the  company,  as  shown  on  the  balance  sheet,  are  greatly  inflated, 
for  ore  properties  which  should  be  given  a  total  value  of  five  hun- 
dred million  dollars  are  being  actually  carried  at  a  valua- 
tion of  one  thousand  million  dollars.  The  effect  of  this  upon 
the  stabilit}^  of  the  company  itself,  and  on  the  prospects  of 
its  security-holders,  will  depend  on  how  this  excess  is  balanced 
on  the  other  side  of  the  sheet.  It  is  clear  that  there  is  a 
large  nominal  value  which  could  not  be  realized  on,  and  if  bonds 
have  been  issued  to  such  an  extent  that  any  part  of  their 
security  depends  upon  the  ore  valuations,  the  security  of  the 
bonds  and  the  stability  of  the  company  will  both  be  affected  very 


QUESTIONS  OF  PRIVATE  POLICY  423 

seriously.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  bonds  are  secured  by  other 
physical  property,  and  the  excessive  ore  valuation  is  balanced 
merely  by  stock  issues,  the  stability  of  the  company  will  not  be 
endangered  but  the  stock  issues  will  show,  by  their  market  price, 
that  the  public  has  discounted  the  overvaluation.  Investors 
who  bought  any  of  the  issues  without  knowledge  that  the  assets 
were  unfairly  valued  will  find  that  both  the  security  of  their 
issues  and  their  market  value  have  depreciated  when  the  truth 
becomes  known.  New  investors,  however,  can  not  complain  on 
either  ground. 

Turning  to  the  effects  of  overvaluation  on  operating  conditions 
and  competition,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  company  which  has 
practised  it  at  the  outset  will  have  to  pay  for  it  each  year.  If 
our  assumed  company  uses  40,000,000  tons  of  ore  annually,  to 
make  20,000,000  tons  of  steel,  it  will  have  to  charge  off  $40,000,- 
000  per  year  for  amortization  of  ore  reserves.  A  competitor 
of  the  same  size,  which  has  valued  its  ore  fairly,  will  have  to 
charge  off  only  half  this  amount.  If  the  two  companies  sell  their 
steel  at  the  same  average  price,  the  conservative  company  will 
actually  show  $1.00  per  ton  more  profit  than  the  other.  So  far 
as  competition  is  concerned,  overvaluation  therefore  offers  diffi- 
culties, and  not  advantages. 

Finally,  the  question  arises  as  to  the  effects  of  overvaluation  of 
raw  materials  on  the  prices  of  finished  products.  In  private  life 
even  the  wording  of  the  question  would  determine  the  answer,  for 
no  one  imagines  that  a  merchant,  by  overcharging  the  cost  of  his 
goods,  can  really  sell  them  for  higher  prices  than  do  his  less  im- 
aginative competitors.  It  is  certain  that,  in  similar  fashion,  no 
amount  of  overvaluation  of  ore  reserves  can  possibly  have  the 
slightest  effect  upon  the  selling  price  of  finished  steel.  The  price 
of  the  steel  will  be  regulated  by  competition;  if  there  be  no  free 
competition,  it  may  be  regulated  by  combination;  but  in  neither 
case  will  an  imaginary  valuation  placed  upon  ores  have  any  effect 
whatever  on  the  matter.  It  is  true,  on  the  other  hand,  that  over- 
valuation of  the  ores  will  serve  to  conceal  the  true  rate  of  profit, 
but  that  is  equally  true  of  overvaluation  of  any  other  part  of  the 
capital  used  in  the  industry. 

To  sum  up  the  matter,  it  may  be  said  that  overvaluation  of 
ore  reserves  puts  the  balance  sheet  on  a  permanently  false  basis, 
and  on  this  account  alone  it  is  reprehensible.  Its  effect  on  the 


424  IRON  ORES 

company  and  on  holders  of  securities  will  be  either  dangerous  or 
merely  objectionable  according  to  the  kind  and  amount  of  securi- 
ties outstanding  against  the  ores.  So  far  as  new  investors  are 
concerned,  the  effect  in  either  case  is  negligible,  for  it  will  have 
been  discounted  by  market  prices.  With  regard  to  competitors, 
overvaluation  places  the  company  practising  it  at  a  distinct 
disadvantage.  So  far  as  consumers  are  concerned,  overvaluation 
is  of  no  interest.  It  may  conceal  profits,  but  it  can  not  produce 
them. 

The  Strategic  Value  of  Large  Tonnages. — There  is  one  phase  of 
the  matter  of  iron-ore  reserve  valuation  which  is  rarely  alluded  to 
in  print,  and  not  commonly  given  its  proper  value  in  corporation 
practice.  Reference  is  made  to  the  technical  and  moral  value 
possessed  by  very  large  reserve  tonnages,  over  and  above  the 
value  which  they  would  have  as  mere  aggregations  of  ore.  It  is 
obvious  that  there  are  certain  difficulties  in  the  way  of  free  dis- 
cussion of  this  subject,  for  the  proper  commercial  utilization  of 
such  large  reserves  may  involve  acts  or  suggestions  which  a  zeal- 
ous government  would  consider  as  tending  to  restrain  trade. 
But  it  is  at  least  possible  to  outline  the  subject  broadly,  in  the 
hopes  that  actual  developments  will  in  later  time  serve  as  more 
definite  illustrations. 

From  the  purely  technical  standpoint  it  would  be  safe  to  as- 
sume that  if  an  iron-ore  deposit  containing  fifty  million  tons  of 
ore  is  worth  a  certain  sum,  an  exactly  similar  deposit  containing 
five  hundred  million  tons  would  be  worth  exactly  ten  times  that 
sum.  This  is  true  technically,  but  not  commercially,  because  in 
passing  from  a  fifty  million  ton  reserve  to  a  five  hundred  million 
ton  holding,  we  have  in  reality  gone  across  a  very  important 
border  line  between  two  entirely  different  classes  of  holdings.  A 
deposit  containing  fifty  million  tons  of  ore  must  be  valued  merely 
as  incidental  to  the  existing  iron  industry;  it  will  not  induce  or 
justify  any  extensive  departures  from  current  metallurgical  prac- 
tice of  furnace  locations.  Its  ore  must  be  valued  by  the  ton,  in 
competition  with  other  ores. 

But  in  dealing  with  ore  reserves  figuring  up  in  the  hundreds  or 
thousands  of  millions  of  tons,  the  conditions  are  changed  more 
radically  than  is  commonly  understood.  A  fifty  million  ton 
deposit  must  be  of  well-known  and  purely  conventional  type 
before  interest  will  be  attracted  by  it.  A  five  hundred  or 


QUESTIONS  OF  PRIVATE  POLICY  425 

thousand  million  ton  deposit  on  the  other  hand,  may  show  very 
uncommon  ores  or  mining  conditions  without  seriously  affecting 
its  value.  The  large  tonnage  will  justify  the  extensive  invest- 
ments in  mining  and  transportation  which  may  be  necessary;  it 
will  justify  attempts  to  modify  concentrating  or  metallurgical 
processes  to  fit  the  new  ores;  it  may  bring  about  a  shift  in  the 
location  of  furnaces  and  steel  mills. 

These  essential  differences  in  value  between  ordinary  and  very 
large  holdings  may  be  better  brought  out  if  concrete  examples 
are  suggested.  Fifty  million  tons  of  low-grade  aluminous  ore 
does  not  sound  inviting,  but  the  three  thousand  million  ton  re- 
serve in  Cuba  is  distinctly  a  commercial  factor.  One  hundred 
million  tons  of  ore  in  the  interior  of  South  America,  even  if  of 
exceptionally  good  grade,  might  lie  undeveloped  for  several  more 
centuries;  but  the  existence  of  seven  thousand  million  tons  in 
Brazil  can  not  be  overlooked  industrially.  Fifty  million  tons 
of  ore  lying  in  a  bed  under  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  so  as  to  require 
submarine  mining,  would  hardly  affect  the  steel  trade;  but  the 
four  thousand  million  tons  of  Newfoundland  may  be  the  most 
important  single  factor  in  our  next  stage  of  progress. 

It  will  be  seen  that  there  is  a  distinct  additional  value  attaching 
to  very  large  ore  holdings,  this  additional  value  being  entirely 
out  of  proportion  to  increase  in  mere  tonnage.  It  is  difficult,  if 
not  impossible,  to  express  it  in  figures,  but  it  certainly  exists  and 
must  be  allowed  for  in  any  valuation  of  such  holdings.  As  soon 
as  an  ore-holding  reaches  a  size  to  justify  changes  in  metallurgical 
practice  or  plant  location,  its  ores  acquire  a  technical  and  moral 
value  far  above  that  which  .they  would  have  if  merely  sold  on  a 
competitive  basis  in  an  open  ore  market. 

It  may  be  that  the  present  guardians  of  our  political  freedom 
and  business  relations  might  object  to  the  use  of  the  word  moral 
in  the  last  paragraph,  and  point  out  that  some  of  the  implications 
which  could  be  drawn  from  this  statement  of  the  subject  might 
result  in  business  transactions  not  entirely  consonant  with  the 
principles  of  the  New  Freedom.  This  may  be  admitted,  but 
fortunately  the  examples  chosen  were  selected  from  ore  deposits 
occurring  outside  our  borders;  and  the  most  important  of  them  is 
in  a  colony  ruled  by  law  and  Englishmen.  Of  course  large  ore 
tonnages,  as  well  as  small,  can  be  utilized  by  smelting  into  iron 
and  conversion  into  steel;  and  the  present  discussion  merely 


426  IRON  ORES 

suggests  that,  under  certain  circumstances,  they  have  other 
utilizations  which  give  them  additional  value. 

The  Low-cost  Producer. — It  is  entirely  conceivable  that  a 
single  corporation  mighf  control  60  percent  of  the  steel  output 
of  a  country,  without  being  really  in  a  position  to  exert  much 
influence  on  prices.  This  situation  would  exist  if  its  60  percent 
did  not  include  the  low-cost  production  of  the  country,  for  in  the 
long  run  it  is  the  low  cost  producer  who  will  fix  the  minimum 
prices  during  depressions,  and  who  will  come  close  to  fixing  the 
average  range  of  prices  during  normal  times.  The  only  time  that 
a  high-cost  plant  has  much  effect  on  prices  is  during  abnormal 
booms,  when  the  maximum  price  obtained  is  likely  to  be  deter- 
mined by  the  cost  at  the  dearest  mill. 

This  gives  the  low-cost  producer  a  strategic  importance  entirely 
out  of  relation  to  the  size  of  its  output,  provided  only  that  this 
output  is  sufficiently  large  to  make  some  impression  on  the  gen- 
eral market.  Those  who  have  kept  in  touch  with  the  copper 
situation  during  recent  years  will  realize  this,  and  can  offer  in 
proof  the  manner  in  which  one  mine  has  served  as  a  weapon  in 
price  disputes.  The  same  thing  applies  to  the  steel  business, 
and  indirectly  to  the  section  of  it  in  which  we  are  at  present 
interested — the  control  and  handling  of  iron-ore  reserves. 

Elsewhere  I  have  stated,  in  very  strong  terms,  the  opinion  that 
anything  like  monopoly  of  iron-ore  reserves  is  now  impracticable 
owing  to  the  tonnages  which  would  have  to  be  taken  into  account. 
That  statement  does  not  require  any  qualification,  but  it  must  be 
read  in  connection  with  the  present  section  before  its  bearing  is 
fully  understood.  The  company  which  controls  any  large  tonnage 
of  the  cheapest  ore  in  the  world,  or  the  cheapest  portion  of  the  ore 
supply  of  any  given  furnace  district,  does  not  need  to  strive  for  mono- 
poly. The  advantages  of  monopoly  come  automatically  to  the  low- 
cost  producer.  And  they  come  in  a  way  which  is  both  legal  and 
legitimate. 

The  question  of  effective  monopoly,  therefore,  does  not  depend 
entirely  upon  the  percentage  of  an  industry  which  is  controlled 
by  one  company;  but  upon  the  ownership  or  control  of  the 
critical  or  low-cost  portion  of  the  industry  Without  this,  mere 
size  will  avail  little;  with  it,  price  control  may  usually  be  made 
effective  without  necessarily  acquiring  any  preponderating  per- 
centage of  the  industry. 


INDEX 


For  general  topics,  reference  should  be  made  to  the  very  detailed  table 
of  contents,  the  index  being  designed  chiefly  for  specific  or  doubtful  headings . 


Acid  bessemer  process,  149-151 
Acid  open-hearth  process,  149-151 
African  ores,  335 
Alabama,  132,  220-226,  228-235 
Alberta,  284 
Algiers,  336 
America,  Central,  295 
North,  181-296 
South,  297-304      . 
Analyses  of  iron  minerals  and  rocks, 
bog  ores,  50 

brown  ores,  25 

carbonate  ores,  26,  53,  319 

chamosite,  26,  328 

earth's  crust,  9 

glauconite,  26 

goethite,  25 

greensand,  26 

hematite,  24 

igneous  rocks,  16 

limnite,  25 

limonite,  25 

magnetite,  23 

pyrite,  27 

pyrrhotite,  27 

sedimentary  rocks,  18 

siderite,  26,  53,  319 

silicate  ores,  26,  328 

thuringite,  26,  328 

turgite,  25 

xanthosiderite,  25 
of  iron  ores,  Africa,  336 

Alabama,  65,  223 

Austria,  26 

Algiers,  336 

Australia,  338 

Austria,  328 

Birmingham,  U.  S.,  65,  223 

Brazil,  302 


Analyses     of     iron     ores,      British 
Columbia,  285 

Canada,  50, 280,  282, 283,  284, 
285 

Chile,  303 

China,  331 

Cleveland  district,  319 

Cuba,  289,  291 

England,  53,  317,  319 

France,  308,  314 

Germany,  26,  308 

Greece,  329 

Great  Britain,  53,  317,  319 

India,  333 

Japan,  332 

Lake   Superior   district,  202- 
204,  214 

Lorraine,  308 

Middlesboro,  319 

New  Brunswick,  280 

Newfoundland,  65,  275 

New  York,  255,  260 

New  Zealand,  338 

Nova  Scotia,  282 

Ohio,  261 

Ontario,  283,  284 

Quebec,  50,  283 

Russia,  326,  327 

Spain,  324 

Scotland,  53 

Sweden,  50,  322 

Tennessee,  65,  227 

Utah,  267 

Venezuela,  300 

Wabana,  65,  275 

Wales,  53 

Wyoming,  267 
Anticline,  19 
Asia,  iron  ores  of,  330-334 


427 


428 


INDEX 


Atikokan  range,  Canada,  194,  283 
Auger  drilling,  120 
Austria,  ores  of,  327 
Australia,  iron  ores  of,  337 

Baraboo  range,  U.  S.,  194 
Basic  bessemer  process,  149-151 

open-hearth  process,  149-151 
Beach  sands,  48 
Bell  Island,  Nfd.,  273-277 
Belgium,  329 
Benson  mines,  255 
Bessemer,  acid,  149-151 

basic,  149-151 
Birmingham,  U.  S.,  222-225 
Blast-furnace  requisites,  142-151 
Blue  billy,  27 
Bog  ores,  49 
Borings,  118-120 
Brazilian  ores,  300 
Briey,  France,  305-310 
British  Columbia,  285 

India,  333 
Brown  hematite,  25 

ores,  25 

Calif ornian  ores,  268 

Canadian  ores,  278-287 

Carbonate  ores,  26 

Central  American  ores,  295 

Chamosite,  26,  328 

Charcoal  as  fuel,  144 

Chemical  composition;  see  Analyses. 

Chicago  district,  140 

Chile,  302 

China,  331 

Chromium  in  ores,  99,  103,  105,  154, 

158 

Churn  drill,  120 
Cleveland  district,  318-319 
Coke  fuel,  144 
Columbian  ores,  297 
Composition;  see  Analyses. 
Core  drilling,  119 
Cornwall,  Pa\,  258 
Crystal  Falls  district,  U.  S.,  194 
Cuban  ores,  288-292 


Cumberland  district,  England,  315- 

318 
Cuyuna  range,  U.  S.,  194 

Density  of  gangue  materials,  124 

of  ores,  123-126 
Diamond  drilling,  119 
Dikes,  magmatic,  101 
Drilling  methods,  118-122 

auger  drill,  120 

churn  drill,  120 

core  drill,  119 

diamond  drill,  119 

Ecuador,  possibilities,  302 
Electric  smelting, 
England,  315-322 
European  ores,  305-330 
Exploring  methods,  118-122 
Export  duties,  417 

Ferrous  and  ferric  iron,  20,  21 

Fertilizer  slags,  151,  310 

Fierro,  U.  S.,  268 

Finland,  322 

Florence  district,  U.  S.,  194 

Fluxes  in  furnace,  145 

Foundry  irons,  148 

France,  ores  of,  305-311,  314,  315 

Fuels  in  furnace,  144 

Gangue  materials,  157 
Germany,  ores  of,  305-314 
Georgia,  ores  of,  225,  228 
Glauconite,  26,  54-57 
Goethite,  25 
Gossan  ores,  90 

Gravity  of  gangue  minerals,  157 
Gravity  of  ores,  157 
Great  Britain,  ores  of,  315-322 
Greece,  ores  of,  329 
Greensand,  26,  54-57 
Guianas,  possible  ores,  297 

Han  Yang  operation,  China,  331-333 
Hartville  district,  U.  S.,  265-267 
Hematite,  composition,  24 


INDEX 


429 


Igneous  rocks,  14-16 
India,  ores  of,  333 
Italy,'  329 
Iron  carbonate,  26 

oxides,  20,  24 

Ridge,  Wisconsin,  213 

silicates,  26 

sulphides,  27 

Japan,  ores  of,  331 

Lake  ores  (bog  ores),  49,  50 
Lake  Superior  district,  U.  S.,  general 
description,*  194-214 

geology  of  ores,  81-84,  194-201 

mining  costs,  129-132 

Lancashire,  England,  315-318 

Laterite  ores,  98 

Limnite,  25 

Limonite,  25 

Longdale,  Va.,  231 

Loon  Lake,  Canada,  194,  283 

Lorraine,  ores  of,  305-311 

Lowmoor,  Va.,  231 

Luxembourg,  ores  of,  305-311 

Lyon  Mt.  mines,  N.  Y.,  255 

Magmatic  dikes,  101 

Magrnatic  segregations,  101 

Magnetite,  23 

Marquette  range,  U.  S.,  194 

Mayari,  Cuba,  290 

Mayville,  Wis.,  213 

Mesabi  range,  U.  S.,  194,  et  seq. 

Mexico,  ores  of,  294 

Michipicoten  range,  Canada,  194, 

283 
Middlesboro  district,  England,  318, 

319 

Minas  Geraes,  Brazil,  300 
Mineville,  N.  Y.,  253 
Moa  district,  Cuba,  290 

Native  iron,  22 
New  Brunswick,  279-280 
Newfoundland,  273-278 
New  Jersey,  255 


New  Mexico,  268 
New  York,  253,  255,  259 
Nickel  in  ores,  99,  103,  105,  154 
North  America,  ores  of,  181-296  ' 

ore  reserves,  385 
North  Carolina,  239 
Norway,  322 
Nova  Scotia,  281-282 

Ohio,  carbonate  ores,  260 
Ojibway  mill  and  ore  exports,  186 
Ontario,  ores  of,  283,  284 
Oolitic  iron  ores,  62-64 
Open-hearth  process,  acid,  149-151 

basic,  149-151 
Oriskany  district,  Va.,  77,  80,  228 

Pennsylvania,  ores  of,  258-260 
Peru,  ore  possibilities,  302 
Phosphorus  in  ores,  147,  155 

in  pig  iron,  151 

slags,  151,  310 
Pig  iron,  allowable  phosphorus,  150 

uses,  149 

Pittsburgh  district,  140 
Porto  Rico,  ore  possibilities,  293 
Pyrite,  27 
Pyrrhotite,  27 

Quebec,  ores  of,  283 

Railroads  and  rates,  165,  205 
Rich  Patch,  Va.,  77 
Royalties  on  ores,  168 
Russia,  ores  of,  325 

Salisbury  district,  U.  S.,  79 
Santiago  district,  Cuba,  288 
Santo  Domingo,  ore  possibilities,  293 
Scandinavian  ores,  322 
Scotland,  ores,  315 
Sedimentary  rocks,  16-18 
Segregations,  magmatic,  101-104 
Siderite,  26 
Silicate  ores,  26,  328 
South  Africa,  ores  of,  336 
South  America,  ores  of,  296-304 
Spain,  ores  of,  323 


430 


INDEX 


Specific  gravity,  gangue  minerals,  124 

iron  ores,  123-126 

Steam-shovel  work,  128-132, 135, 136 
Steel-making  processes,  149-151 
Submarine  mining,  273 
Sunrise  district,  U.  S.,  265 
Swanzy  district,  U.  S.,  194 
Sweden,  ores  of,  322 
Syncline,  19 

Tata  operation,  India,  333 

Taxation  of  iron  ores,  416 

Tennessee,  ores  of,  225-236 

Test  pits,  122 

Texada  Island  district,  Canada,  285 

Texas,  ores  of,  236 

Thomas  (basic  bessemer)  slag,  151, 

310 

Thuringite,  26,  328 
Titaniferous  ores,  104 
Tofo,  Chile,  302 
Torbrook,  Canada,  281 


Trenches  in  exploring,  122 
Tripoli,  ores  of,  336 
Tunis,  ores  of,  336 
Turgite,  composition  of,  25 

United  States,  see  Table  of  Contents, 
descriptions  of  ores,  181-272 
iron-ore  production,  183,  186 
pig-iron  production,  353,  357 
ore  reserves,  339,  387 

Venezuela,  ores  of,  297 
Vermillion  range,  U.  S.,  194 
Virginia,  ores  of,  228 

Wabana,  Newfoundland,  273 
Wales,  carbonate  ores,  53 
Westphalia,  311 
Wyoming,  265 

Xanthosiderite,  composition  of,  25 


YC  33735 


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